The impact of the reforms and of the process of European integration towards democratic stabilization and of the process of European integration may face the emergence of fluid party systems where populist and radical-right parties and movements have an easy foot in the door.
It outlines the features of the post-communist system in order to identify the legacy that leaves behind. This paper examines the role of the communist legacy and the challenges of EU integration for a new democracy, at the political level. Even if it seemed rather unlikely that Poles would reject membership, the possibility of a low turnout together with an average lower level of enthusiasm made the referendum days (June 2003) awkward and challenging for Poland with fears of turnout lower than 50%. Negotiations opened a new reality (Spring 1998), and support began to decrease (May 1999). Since 1994, when the CBOS ( Centrum Badanii Opinii Społecznej, Public Opinion Research Centre) started to conduct its opinion polls on people’s attitudes toward integration, Poles consistently showed high levels of enthusiasm (77% in May 1994, 80% in May 1996, and 72% in August 1997). However, up to 1999 within the country itself support never seemed to decline. Poland was the more difficult state to accommodate within the EU, as a result of its size, and the large and demanding agriculture sector. In Poland, the idea that the country was becoming a ‘second-class’ member state became the focus of articles and comments.
The German fears, of being swamped by workers flowing across the borders, spread to almost all of the EU15 member states, while in the run-up to membership, hopes were crushed by the slow, costly pace of the integration process among the candidate countries. The fifth enlargement of the European Union (20) represented a challenge both for the post-communist candidate countries and the EU: (i) for the first time the EU had to absorb a large number of countries that were far from the EU norms, in terms of economic developments and structures (ii) the entire body of European laws, treaties and regulations – acquis communautaire – was much more complex than in any other previous enlargement and finally, (iii) with the passing of the time, increasing levels of distrust grew amongst the EU member states.