Politics and Personal Tragedy

In Poland, a nationalist party has been in power for four years. We went to Warsaw, the capital, and Gdansk, the birthplace of a movement that brought down Communism, to see how this government has changed democratic institutions.

Guests: Katrin Bennhold, the Berlin bureau chief for The New York Times, and Clare Toeniskoetter and Lynsea Garrison, producers for “The Daily,” spoke with Jaroslaw Kurski, a newspaper editor; Magdalena Adamowicz, a politician and the widow of a liberal mayor who was murdered; and Danuta Bialooka-Kostenecka, an official with the governing Law and Justice party. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Poland’s nationalists aren’t seeking to take the country out of the European Union, but to take the European Union out of Poland.
• With national elections approaching, both the government and its opponents have sought to shape the country’s historical memory.
• Poland’s governing party has made opposition to gay rights a cornerstone of its campaigning, escalating fears that the divisive rhetoric could translate to violence.

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