Poland shows that populists can be beaten

LiberalsdonotPSADPS get much to cheer them up these days, but the news from Warsaw this week qualifies. Confounding fears that many disenchanted voters might simply stay at home, Poles turned out in record numbers on October 15th the populist-nationalist Law and Justice (i) party that has run the country for the past eight years. They gave what looks like a solid mandate for government to an opposition alliance headed by , a former prime minister and a former head of the European Council to boot. The alliance won 248 seats in the 460-member Sejm, or lower house of parliament, and 66 of 100 seats in the Senate, the weaker upper house.Following a run of successes for illiberal populists—in Hungary and Italy last year, and in Turkey in May, not to mention a sharp recent rise in popularity for Germany’s f—the result is a relief. To understand why it is such good news, consider what would have happened if i had managed to stay on.