Polish progress

I don't normally cheer when a conservative or Christian Democratic party wins an election. But on this occasion, three cheers are in order. Sanity has been restored to Polish politics, at least to the premiership. One of the more troubling - but perhaps inevitable - aspects of post-Communist Eastern Europe has been the growth of extreme-right populist parties. So it is a cause for real celebration when the voters so firmly give them the boot as the Poles did last to Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice party. Civic Platform, even with the peasant party, they have a good chance of returning Poland to the European mainstream.