It bears repeating that in 2014 Jarosław Kaczyński said "We need to do everything possible to ensure that Poland can become what Turkey is today. When people talk of Turkey, they talk of it as a serious state."

Everything we've seen since 2015 has been directed to this end.

People focus far too much on Kaczyński as an ideologist, when in fact there isn't a single ideological principle he hasn't been prepared to renege on if the alternative was more power. Instead, the essence of his rule is the remorseless removal of, bypassing or negation of any

institution that stands between his decisions and their execution, whether that be an independent Constitutional Tribunal, a public media that scrutinises the government, or an underperforming proxy prime minister like Szydło.

Immigration? No, his govts. have presided over the largest modern wave of immigration to Poland.
Abortion? No, he spent much time trying to keep the issue *off* the political agenda.
Anti-communism? No, the face of his judicial 'reforms' was a former martial law prosecutor.

I often hear people saying that Orban is a pragmatist, while Kaczyński is an ideologue. This isn't true. Orban's EPP status simply means he has more leverage to cut deals.

If you want to understand Kaczyński, and by extension PiS, you *do* need to pay attention to policy. But it would be a mistake to think you can locate the essence of the party in the sum total of that policy.

Often when I draw attention to the "more like Turkey" quote, defenders of Kaczyński will focus on the output side of that, and ask me where the murders of journalists, extrajudicial beatings and other such things are. Leaving aside the question of whether the increased

aggressiveness of the police isn't already a worrying enough development in that direction, to concentrate on output misses the point. The point is that Kaczyński requires the same unfettered power. It's not about exercising power in the same way Erdogan might; it's about having

the option of doing so, should he wish to, without having to contend with the scrutiny and resistance of institutions opposed to his objectives.