Polish actress and theatre director Krystyna Janda has warned that democracy in Poland is under strain, describing the country as sailing on a wobbling ship. In an interview with Onet, later republished on the WP Kobieta portal, she said that the division paralysing contemporary Poland is a serious threat and that sharing a democratic system with antidemocrats is difficult.
Janda also spoke of a lasting fear of Russian imperialism and diagnosed a crisis within the Western community of nations. Her comments reflect a broader anxiety about the state of public life, which she framed in deliberately strong terms rather than through specific policy disputes or events. She did not point to a single decision or law as the cause of her concern, but rather to a general atmosphere in which the basic rules of democratic coexistence feel less secure.
She admitted to being afraid of so-called « prawdziwych Polaków », the so-called true Poles, a phrase she used to describe a narrow, exclusive vision of national identity. Her remarks point to concern about who is considered a legitimate member of the political community and how that boundary is drawn in public debate. In her framing, the danger lies not only in open political opponents but in a definition of belonging that leaves little room for those who think differently.
The interview took place during work on her theatre project « Koniec Czerwonego Człowieka », whose title suggests an adaptation of the work of Svetlana Alexievich, the Belarusian writer and Nobel laureate known for documentary-style accounts of Soviet and post-Soviet life. Janda's discussion of democracy and Russian influence sits naturally alongside the themes of that production, which draws on the experiences of ordinary people living under authoritarian systems. The timing links her public commentary to a creative project that examines how societies remember and confront their past.
Janda's image of a ship that is wobbling yet still afloat conveys a sense of fragility rather than imminent collapse. She did not suggest that democratic institutions had already failed, only that they require constant attention and a shared willingness to sustain them. That emphasis on maintenance and responsibility runs through her argument, which presents the health of democracy as a collective task rather than the concern of any single political camp.
The excerpt available does not include polling data, figures or details of specific legislation, and it does not give an exact publication date. The headline, which quotes Janda's alarm about the ship, captures the central thrust of her argument: that Poland's democratic foundations require careful protection in a divided society. Readers seeking measurable evidence of the trends she describes will need to look to other sources, as the interview itself relies on her personal assessment and her reading of current public life.