How is it not a Watergate? They used Pegasus on the leader of the most important election campaign in the last 7 years in Poland.
That's just a normal day for us in Poland. People who vote for Law and Justice do not care the law (which has been already changed to serve their interests) nor the justice (which is also nearly fully controlled by them at this point). As long as it pisses off the other side, it's OK with them. Oh, and the Catholic Church is helping them, because they also get a cut.
With the acquiescence of the Pope, or is he turning a blind eye to this?
I don't think that the Vatican necessarily has that much power over the Polish Episcopate. It seems like they operate as an association of non-profits all across the world and every single organization operates independently, within a rough framework.
I live in one of the largest cities, haven't ever really been a church-goer. Going through all the sacraments was just a traditional thing you'd do. A decade ago, I don't remember hearing anything political in my local church. Sure, I heard some pretty obnoxious homophobic stuff, saw "exorcisms", but it was always somewhat neutral. However over the past few years, I've heard a lot of stories about rabid priests demonizing "the other side" (be it the other parties, "the LGBT plague" etc.), saying that the only way towards salvation is voting for PiS. Maybe it was a very vocal minority that was amplified by the media (look, priest X is doing this stuff! how terrible!). Eventually it seemed like that behaviour was normalized and the attitude of the people towards the Church became even more radicalized.
Right now, the percentage of people who claim they're religious is plummeting. People who disagree with PiS (and the behaviour of the Church) are pulling their kids from "Religion" / Catechesis lessons, mostly in large cities. In my community, the schools have to group up multiple classes to even have groups of 10. How do you fight it? Well, you give a ton of funding to "patriotic causes", which are primarily promoting Catholicism, militarism / far-right, nationalistic narratives (the government is contributing to this now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB2XRK_Xb6g).
The trade-off seems to be replacing your average church-goes / people who only go to the church for baptisms / First Communion / marriages, with Polish "patriots" - nationalists full of hatred towards anyone who's not white, religious and preferably voting for the Populist-Nationalists or Conservative-Liberals (who banded up with actual neonazis???). Arguably, I think that financially it could be a net positive for the Episcopate - they're getting public funding (for now) and possibly acquiring new, radicalized, loyal followers.
Disclaimer: It probably _is_ a very loud minority. Unfortunately it's also the minority that appears to control the Church leadership. I feel sorry for the legitimately honest and good people I met through the Church, who are now getting grouped up with xenophobes.
Right now is probably the toughest moment for them. We have a really nice Omicron wave and their tax reform that went into effect on Jan 1st (primarily shifting money from local government, where opposition controls the largest cities, to healthcare) has failed extremely spectacularly. They ignored the whole process and the laws are overcomplicated (yet broken) crap, increasing the tax burden on most people. Oops!
Every bureaucracy's primary allegiance is to itself, not its constituents.
And most importantly, does this include the Polish Catholics *employed by the Vatican-led Church"?
Lay people aren't relevant to this.
There was irrefutable proof that Nixon ordered the break into DNC headquarters and then covered it up. We have proof Brejza was hacked. To become Watergate, we need proof the government ordered it.
How can you place blame on the electorate? People don't have a say in right-wing theocratic ultranationalist authoritarian regimes.
Except, you know, if the "right-wing theocratic ultranationalist authoritarian regime" is democratically elected over and over.
In Poland, president, both chambers of the parliament, constitutional court and state prosecutor are all Trumps.
Didn't Trump complain his campaign was spied on too. Deep state will do what it will in every country. Politician change, but lifelong bureaucrats remain. Sometimes its not clear who really runs the show even. You can't assumed based on who is the figurehead on TV.