A Polish place forever EU sceptical

By Wieslaw Horabik

Date: 08/07/04

THE Godziszow district is a no-man's land located in the southern corner of the Lublin province in Poland, the poorest region in the European Union.

The road that leads to Godziszow was constructed with EU money granted in the framework of the SAPARD aid programme. The funds helped connect the place - possibly the most hostile to Brussels in the entire Union - with the rest of the world.

This road is well known to journalists - each time there are elections reporters go in search of colourful stories: Godziszow is a hotbed of chauvinism.

During the accession referendum of 2003, turnout in this community was 88% compared to the nation's average of 55%. The majority of villagers voted against Poland's accession to the EU.

During June's elections to the European Parliament, Godziszow set the country's record again. More than 44% of electors cast their vote, against a national average of 20%.

The inhabitants of the village voted for two openly anti-EU parties. The candidate of the nationalist Christian party, the League of the Polish Families, received 47% of the votes cast. Second in the race was a member of the populist Eurosceptic party Samoobrona (Self-Defence), with 24%.

The people of Godziszow do not trust journalists: they feel cheated and ridiculed, and claim media reports misrepresent them, saying reporters have painted them as "black sheep".

Father Nowak, the village priest, says proudly that Godziszow is the only place in Europe where the "szarwark" - the duty of all villagers to work free of charge for a few days each year on behalf of the church - is still practised. This obligation was rescinded in Poland in the 18th century.

"People are hard-working and pious here," says Father Nowak. "They visit the church in large numbers; they respect their priest. They are conservative, perhaps, but in the positive meaning of the word; they cherish traditions and old values. Nonetheless, they are also open to anything new and they are tolerant."

The priest says that the villagers voted massively for anti-EU parties because of the lack of reliable information and because they were neglected by candidates from other parties.

"They voted for a particular candidate [from the League of Polish families], the only candidate that thought it worth coming here.

"More than one hundred farmers attended the meeting."

But Andrzej Olech, the local leader, says that a meeting was also organized with a candidate from Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc (Law and Order), a liberal, pro-EU party. The attendance was poor.

Arable lands constitute 77% of the district's surface and the soil is fertile. Godziszow farmers, however, are not happy with their existence. They say that they became impoverished in the process of Poland's transition from communism to a free-market economy.

However, despite their Euroscepticism, more than 90% of the Godziszow farmers have submitted applications for EU subsidies.

Father Nowak sees no contradiction in the fact that people who openly declare their aversion to the EU try to grab the Union's funds. "It is not an act of altruism [by the EU]," he says.

"The Poles are eligible for donations. Our country pays its share of the Union budget, does it not?"

When asked about what some may see as double standards, the villagers refuse to answer and quicken their pace. They do not want to talk about the EU.

But the priest does not shy away from discussing what he sees as the negative aspects of Poland's accession to the European Union on 1 May.

"The people reacted angrily to the exclusion of Invocatio Dei [a mention of God] from the preamble to the European constitution," says Nowak.

"They are also against the introduction of the cadastral tax [on land and property]. They say it will entirely ruin them."

But despite Father Nowak's comment, a survey carried out after the June adoption of the EU constitution showed that 47% of Poles would vote in favour of the document in a national referendum.

The villagers from Godziszow stand alone again.

• Wieslaw Horabik is a freelance journalist based in Poland.

Writer looks at the Godziszow district of Poland, the poorest area of the EU and thought to be one of the most Eurosceptic.