Valentin Behr (Warszawa): De la Seconde à la Troisième République : mythification de l’entre-deux guerres et conceptions politiques dans la Pologne contemporaine

Nous publions sur ce blog les abstracts des interventions à la journée d’étude Critiques de la démocratie, autoritarismes, populismes en Europe: quelles continuités et ruptures entre l’entre-deux-guerres et aujourd’hui?, dans une autre langue que celle de l’intervention pour favoriser le dialogue entre les participants. Aujourd’hui, l’intervention de Valentin Behr, chercheur en sciences politiques à l’Université de Varsovie, dans le quatrième panel Mouvements populistes d’hier et d’aujourd’hui qui aura lieu le vendredi 15 mars 2019 à 11:00.

This paper analyses references to the Second Polish Republic (II RP) of the interwar period (1918-1939) in contemporary Polish political life. The II RP constitutes a double reference, both historical and political, abundantly mobilized in Polish political discourses after 1989. In many respects, the II RP constitutes the matrix of modern politics in Poland, with the return to independence in 1918: anti-communism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, the political role of the Church, the place of national and religious minorities in the nation state, the relationship to democracy and authoritarianism… are all political issues at the heart of the debates that emerged in the interwar period, which continue to shape the Polish political field after 1989. After giving an overview of the presence of the II RP in contemporary Polish political debates, I will propose a synthesis of the issues raised by the mythified vision of II RP, now dominant in Poland. Finally, I will show how this mythified vision helps to legitimize conservative and authoritarian political stances.