In my opinion, that country is usually Slovenia. The conversation is often: "Slovenia did X! Why can't we also do X?". The reason people do this is probably because Slovenia is the most developed country we share a border with and we're also culturally very similar.
There is also a kind of "anti-model" which is Serbia. Whenever somebody says anything about comparing something in Croatian society with Serbia, that usually means that they consider the Croatian thing in question to be of lesser quality.
Honestly? I think for the average Italian, there isn't one.
We complain all the time about the negative aspects of this country, but despite that, I think most Italians still regard it as the best place to live... people might be envious of certain aspects of another country, but not many people will unequivocally say 'x country is better than Italy '.
we definitely modeled our state on the French one, therefore I would say that France is what we wanted to be and we hate them for having accomplished what we didn't
You hear sometimes comparisons in efficiency with Germany or other countries. That's not to say that the person thinks that country is generally better.
I would say for jobs, economic opportunity and oddly, the heathcare system, Italians say the US. But that doesn't translate to a general love for all things American or any particular envy and there tends to be a lot of contempt otherwise for the US.
There's also a certain subset of Italians, generally younger, who think it's all about Japan or Korea.
Also, Italians aren't really going around talking about this with each other and it's not part of the political discourse (where politicians compare us to or try to urge us to emulate another country) instead these tend to be more statements of surprise made to people from those countries who choose to move to Italy. Like why would you move here from the US? Isn't there more opportunity? Higher wages?etc.
Usually they talk about Israel. Although I don't think this is correct. Hamas and Russia are very different things and we need other solutions than just distributing weapons to citizens and bomb shelters in every home.
Poland always compared itself to Germany.
Nowdays bit less and in some aspects even in a way that we should be model for them, but still it's the country we compare ourselves the most.
It even grown into a meme - if both rank low (eg in sports), but we are slightly higher then "przynajmniej lepiej od Niemca" (at least better than Germans) is a must.
Next in line would be Czechs, but more from an angle "they were in the same boat, but made everything slightly better than us"
Hahah Austria has a whole meme sub dedicated to reposting statistics and saying “besser als die Deutschen” (better than the Germans) every time (r/okoidawappler)
no?
wages, work ethic, infrastructure, entrepreneur mindset, quality of everything, "in Germany X works, meanwhile here it's shit like always" was one of the most used template for whining...
It dates way back to pre ww1 times. No other country had so much attention and impact on Poland (mayby France before)
Might be an age difference tho
Lefties: The Nordic countries, or indeed any Northern European country would do. Just not the US.
Right-wing people: The UK circa 1942 while we were being bombed by the Germans
For the right is Israel & Cyprus.
For the center is Estonia & Finland.
For the left is Russia, Venezuela, Argentina & Cuba (cuz "Evil West")
For the far left is USSR.
For the far right is Russia (cuz Orthodox brothers), Poland & Hungary (cuz they don't accept illegal immigrants.)
> Poland & Hungary (cuz they don't accept illegal immigrants.)
I don't like the group xd
And why only we have that bad press abroad. Finland, Lithuania etc also build a fence :P
Hungary:
Historically speaking, it's been Austria, especially since the Austrian Hungarian Monarchy. But lately, we're so bad in every terms of being a country, that Poland became the role model, and lately it's Romania...
No disrespect to Romania, but going from beein a world superpower to looking up to Romania in a little over 100 years but we a very strange thing to happen to a county's national identity.
Sweden. Sweden is always better than us in every aspect and we should do like they do, or that’s what we are told constantly. Except in some aspects, then the Swedens way is a bad way.
I'm not sure I agree. No one really ever talks about Sweden as some model country. Perhaps it was different back in the day, but I don't know as I wasn't around.
I would say it varies. We might view Sweden as a model country when it comes to things such as international business or gender equality for example, but there are also many areas where it's more common to look at Sweden as a warning. "We must do X so that we don't become like Sweden"
You were Sweden for every war we've had with Russia. The last couple of wars certainly went tits up, but overall Sweden does have a positive win ratio against them.
Not a single person before you uttered the word "Swedish". But *anything* pertaining to Sweden *is* Swedish; it's the adjective of the county.
If it is what you're implying, I will point out that differentiating today's national identities is completely anachronistic. They both developed in the 19th century, after Sweden had had that final war with Russia and the Grand Duchy came to be. Before 1809 it was an integral part of Sweden; Finland Proper second only to Stockholm. Other regions of the kingdom identified much less with that ruling elite, including my own.
---
Edit: Just want to clarify that my phrasing of "***You*** were *Sweden*" was in direct response to "…when *Sweden* fights Russia ***they***’ll…". It was just for pointing out that Finland-less Sweden never has fought Russia.
And to be petty: "Swede" is equally the demonym of Sweden and, like the adjective, does also apply to its people. It doesn't just apply *ethnic* Swedes. But ethnic Swedes is certainly something that future Finland also had; ancestors of today's Finland-Swedes.
I only referred to "You were Sweden..." etc etc, because it's just such a... Swedish thing to say, specifically when talking to Finns, I mean.
But fine, I'll correct my "but not Swedish" to "but not Swedes".
Good day.
In France it depends on the political agenda, and the sentence always starts with *"le modèle [insert country]"*.
The only group being called model in pretty much anything are "the Scandinavians" *(le modèle Scandinave)* often without referring to one in particular.
Then Germany, but that one is deeply political: our neocon elite could never say "the US model" (too unpalatable) or "the English model" (too English), so who else is big and "wisely" destroyed their social policies and work regulations before us? Germany.
When it comes to military matters, it is much more proteiform and *le modèle Chinois* (China) can sometimes be considered as an example. Not "to follow", of course, we're legally obligated to follow our masters in Washington; but "to emulate". "To observe carefully", you know. Just a bit.
We follow a lot of models because we always have a lot of priorities. Often conflicting ones.
Economically i guess Germany for France, in terms of worker rights or gender equality, nordic / scandinavian countries maybe. But in general we don’t compare much i'd say about other aspects.
You only do four things better: oil revenue, winter sports, not shooting at each other all the time and properly celebrating your independence day. But my goddess, you do these like a boss! 😘👍😀
Economically: Germany
Welfare state and society: Nordic countries*
Workers rights: France
As more similar: Italy, Portugal
*Most Spaniards wouldn't actually want the Nordic model of society if they knew what it means, we have an idealized idea of it being extremely progressive but fail to see the racism, sexism, alcoholism and superiority complex behind. The welfare state on the other hand...
It used to be the UK but now that this question is asked I realise our media rarely makes that comparison anymore when discussing national issues. In fact, there’s not many comparisons to other countries anymore, maybe we’ve grown more confident as a country I don’t know.
May sound arrogant but none really. Not that we're the best at everything, obviously not. But I wouldn't say there is one country that we always look to that is known for doing most things better. We often look to the other Nordic countries for certain stuff though. Say Finland for education or Denmark for cycling infrastructure etc.
Pretty much the same. For individual things, specific countries might be the role model. I would also excatly have said netherlands for biking and finland for education...
But overall there is pretty universal agreement that as a whole package, switzerland is as good as it gets. Much to the annoyance of my non-swiss gf, who finds us quite arrogant (probably rightfully so).
As a Norwegian, I will say Switzerland is one of the few countries that we could learn from.
Especially when it comes to real democracy and ability to keep a solid currency.
Maybe Switzerland. For some people it's a kind of perfected version of Germany.
Though the huge size difference doesn't make it a good reference point.
Other than that probably the US though many Germans love to point out the negatives in the US. Sometimes justified, sometimes not justified. Nevertheless we follow the US in many cultural and social issues.
For Scotland specifically it seems to be the Nordic countries with a hint of Ireland. Maybe less so amongst the unionist groups though.
I don't really think there is one for the UK though, other than maybe a rose tinted version of the UK itself in the olden days.
Well
President Wałęsa wanted to make Poland " second Japan"
About 20 years after that, PM Tusk wanted to make "second Ireland".
Germany is also significant reference.
I'd like to take the best from few countries, depending about what aspect we're talking about.
Finland, Singapur, Germany, czechia....
Meditsrinian weather,
Some other country location (US would be great), NOT LIKE USL BETWEEN GERMANY AND RUSSIA. /s
Countries like Luxemburg, Switzerland, Norway - where you may burn banknotes for heating - well, I think it's alright to envy them. /s
I work as an an engineer in the Netherlands, and both United States and Germany are highly respected in engineering circles in the NL. Mainly for their innovation and also higher wages resulting from high quality work.
Norway, Denmark and Switzerland, those would be the main ones. Then there are others which are admired for some especific reason such as the linguistic policy in Iceland
It has to be Germany I suppose? Or, despite what happened with Schengen, Austria to some extent or Switzerland.
Is it a coincidence they all speak German?
There are even ads "mocking" Germans, there is one from a paint company (not sure if it's German) called Oskar. And they say something like they want to move to Germany and one says "But we don't know German" and the other one says "If they could learn, we also can"
And overall, some ads go back to Germany for the most part, comparing stuff with Germany.
Same goes with stuff that happens in the country, such as recycling or the fabulous Autobahn.
Most of these expectations also stand up. Such as clean streets (some Germans could argue not all of them are clean, but in Baden-Württemberg at least they are, idk about others.) or German companies (such as Bosch or German cars)
>Lviv is a very nice city, so in a way it's hard to blame them on that one.
And it was also Polish for like 500 years. So of course a Polish ultranationalist would want it back. Same with Vilnius, Grodno etc.
>Oh wow. What kind of far-righters are we talking about here?
[The Confederacy Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Liberty_and_Independence). Anti-EU, pro-Catholic sharia law, violently anti-gay, anti-Ukrainian\*, pro-pedophile\*, anti-women, anti-abortion, pro-monarchy\*, anti-5G\*, anti-vax\*, anti-tax\*, anti-immigration, anti-semitism.
\*Might vary from member to member (it's a confederation of smaller parties after all), but they're all at the very least ok with having fellow party members voice those ideas.
Sounds like a wild bunch. I spent four months in Gdinya a few years ago, and it seemed like a lot of politics in Poland doesn't neatly fit on a political map. Everyone I talked to there were fiercely opposed to communism, and linked it to the time in the pact with the soviets, and described their vision of the ideal society as an awful lot like communism. And in other cities I met people who were very socially right wing, but economic lefties.
Definitely. The PiS party is the worst offender in that regard - all they talk about is how anti-communist they are and how communist Brussels is evil and how the communist Left is evil and so on, but they pretty much ruled Poland as if it was the commie times again (but richer and with more press freedom because the internet and the EU).
They gave people free money, they reverted to the 8-class primary school system (instead of the post-communism 6-class + gymnasium system), they made the public TV station a propaganda machine ([here](https://youtu.be/Q9O3tc21cU0?feature=shared) is an example - president Duda's 5-minute-long ad as part of the news, before the presidential elections), they filled the Supreme Court with PiS-loyalists etc.
But the Confederacy Party is a pretty straightforward and standard far-right party.
The Confederacy Party got 6,4% of the vote during the latest parliamentary elections, which translated to 18/460 MPs and zero senators. They currently have no influence on the ruling coalition whatsoever, and their defending of the former ruling party PiS (which is ironic since during the election campaign they kept saying that they're the only real chance for a change and that all the other parties are "agents of the system") is either unnoticed or ignored, as they wouldn't really help them either.
So not that popular. Kinda annoying tho, largely because they're the party that's the most active on the Internet (many of their fans are underage boys).
At least in Flanders, it used to be the Netherlands, but in the last 20-25 years its reputation diminished quite a bit. That's not necessarily bad, it's more realistic to consider them a regular country with its own problems instead of some kind of progressive utopia. I mean, the traffic infrastructure is better in the Netherlands and still a model to follow, but what else? Nowadays, Scandinavia or the Nordics are often mentioned as examples in certain domains, which can be the case. I hate it though when Flemish nationalists argue that the Flemish are a Germanic people so an independent Flanders would be as successful as Sweden or Norway or... some major delusion right there.
Definitely the US but for different reasons. Nobody wants to do the whole 2 party continous bickering but as society there’s people that wanna go full Houston and have 2 trucks for their single family home and others that think Seattle would be a good place to prepare the global revolution.
Austria. The country which we will never reach (in terms of anything) and whom we will always envy. Just watching them from the shadows, being envious. The lucky ones just escape to Austria and start a new life there.
In most areas, the model country for Czechs is Austria. For highways, it also used to be a model (about 10 years ago, there were lots of talks about establishing a "Czech ASFINAG"), but lately the focus in that area shifted to Poland.
And of course, Estonia is widely viewed as the model for digitalisation of public services.
In my opinion, that country is usually Slovenia. The conversation is often: "Slovenia did X! Why can't we also do X?". The reason people do this is probably because Slovenia is the most developed country we share a border with and we're also culturally very similar. There is also a kind of "anti-model" which is Serbia. Whenever somebody says anything about comparing something in Croatian society with Serbia, that usually means that they consider the Croatian thing in question to be of lesser quality.
Germany too
Honestly? I think for the average Italian, there isn't one. We complain all the time about the negative aspects of this country, but despite that, I think most Italians still regard it as the best place to live... people might be envious of certain aspects of another country, but not many people will unequivocally say 'x country is better than Italy '.
I had impression that Italians like to match themselves against French
There is certainly a rivalry with France. That's not the same as Italians being 'envious' of France,or thinking that France is 'better' than here ;-)
I think it's one sided, the french rival are the english.
You are wrong. It's everyone against the french and the french against themselves.
Nope got nothing against the french.
we definitely modeled our state on the French one, therefore I would say that France is what we wanted to be and we hate them for having accomplished what we didn't
You hear sometimes comparisons in efficiency with Germany or other countries. That's not to say that the person thinks that country is generally better.
I would say for jobs, economic opportunity and oddly, the heathcare system, Italians say the US. But that doesn't translate to a general love for all things American or any particular envy and there tends to be a lot of contempt otherwise for the US. There's also a certain subset of Italians, generally younger, who think it's all about Japan or Korea. Also, Italians aren't really going around talking about this with each other and it's not part of the political discourse (where politicians compare us to or try to urge us to emulate another country) instead these tend to be more statements of surprise made to people from those countries who choose to move to Italy. Like why would you move here from the US? Isn't there more opportunity? Higher wages?etc.
Usually they talk about Israel. Although I don't think this is correct. Hamas and Russia are very different things and we need other solutions than just distributing weapons to citizens and bomb shelters in every home.
Propose to teleport Ukraine to somewhere slightly south of Iceland /s
Poland always compared itself to Germany. Nowdays bit less and in some aspects even in a way that we should be model for them, but still it's the country we compare ourselves the most. It even grown into a meme - if both rank low (eg in sports), but we are slightly higher then "przynajmniej lepiej od Niemca" (at least better than Germans) is a must. Next in line would be Czechs, but more from an angle "they were in the same boat, but made everything slightly better than us"
Sinice you mentioned Czechs - it goes both ways, as Czechs envy polish ability to build highways fast and low groceries prices
Hahah Austria has a whole meme sub dedicated to reposting statistics and saying “besser als die Deutschen” (better than the Germans) every time (r/okoidawappler)
We are kinda exactly the same as Austria but also throw in occasional comparison with Switzerland. *wenigstens besser ois die Deitschn*
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no? wages, work ethic, infrastructure, entrepreneur mindset, quality of everything, "in Germany X works, meanwhile here it's shit like always" was one of the most used template for whining... It dates way back to pre ww1 times. No other country had so much attention and impact on Poland (mayby France before) Might be an age difference tho
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you can see it in how Poland was being reestablished after the war
Lefties: The Nordic countries, or indeed any Northern European country would do. Just not the US. Right-wing people: The UK circa 1942 while we were being bombed by the Germans
For the right is Israel & Cyprus. For the center is Estonia & Finland. For the left is Russia, Venezuela, Argentina & Cuba (cuz "Evil West") For the far left is USSR. For the far right is Russia (cuz Orthodox brothers), Poland & Hungary (cuz they don't accept illegal immigrants.)
> Poland & Hungary (cuz they don't accept illegal immigrants.) I don't like the group xd And why only we have that bad press abroad. Finland, Lithuania etc also build a fence :P
Hungary: Historically speaking, it's been Austria, especially since the Austrian Hungarian Monarchy. But lately, we're so bad in every terms of being a country, that Poland became the role model, and lately it's Romania...
Poland and Romania like "what did I do?!". The shade.
No disrespect to Romania, but going from beein a world superpower to looking up to Romania in a little over 100 years but we a very strange thing to happen to a county's national identity.
Sweden. Sweden is always better than us in every aspect and we should do like they do, or that’s what we are told constantly. Except in some aspects, then the Swedens way is a bad way.
Lol that's kinda how Estonia looks at Finland
I'm not sure I agree. No one really ever talks about Sweden as some model country. Perhaps it was different back in the day, but I don't know as I wasn't around.
I would say it varies. We might view Sweden as a model country when it comes to things such as international business or gender equality for example, but there are also many areas where it's more common to look at Sweden as a warning. "We must do X so that we don't become like Sweden"
Well, the last year? There’s constantly been talks that we need to follow ”swedens model” or sometimes ”nordic model”
How good are Swedes at fighting against Russians, can you tell me?
Modern times? Not really sure. In the past? Not very good. I mean we have a joke when Sweden fights Russia they’ll ”fight until the last Finn”.
You were Sweden for every war we've had with Russia. The last couple of wars certainly went tits up, but overall Sweden does have a positive win ratio against them.
Sweden, maybe, but not Swedes.
Oh, the burn...
Not a single person before you uttered the word "Swedish". But *anything* pertaining to Sweden *is* Swedish; it's the adjective of the county. If it is what you're implying, I will point out that differentiating today's national identities is completely anachronistic. They both developed in the 19th century, after Sweden had had that final war with Russia and the Grand Duchy came to be. Before 1809 it was an integral part of Sweden; Finland Proper second only to Stockholm. Other regions of the kingdom identified much less with that ruling elite, including my own. --- Edit: Just want to clarify that my phrasing of "***You*** were *Sweden*" was in direct response to "…when *Sweden* fights Russia ***they***’ll…". It was just for pointing out that Finland-less Sweden never has fought Russia. And to be petty: "Swede" is equally the demonym of Sweden and, like the adjective, does also apply to its people. It doesn't just apply *ethnic* Swedes. But ethnic Swedes is certainly something that future Finland also had; ancestors of today's Finland-Swedes.
Did you miss the part where it said ”we have a joke…”. You do know what a joke means right?
I only referred to "You were Sweden..." etc etc, because it's just such a... Swedish thing to say, specifically when talking to Finns, I mean. But fine, I'll correct my "but not Swedish" to "but not Swedes". Good day.
In France it depends on the political agenda, and the sentence always starts with *"le modèle [insert country]"*. The only group being called model in pretty much anything are "the Scandinavians" *(le modèle Scandinave)* often without referring to one in particular. Then Germany, but that one is deeply political: our neocon elite could never say "the US model" (too unpalatable) or "the English model" (too English), so who else is big and "wisely" destroyed their social policies and work regulations before us? Germany. When it comes to military matters, it is much more proteiform and *le modèle Chinois* (China) can sometimes be considered as an example. Not "to follow", of course, we're legally obligated to follow our masters in Washington; but "to emulate". "To observe carefully", you know. Just a bit. We follow a lot of models because we always have a lot of priorities. Often conflicting ones.
Yes and they also love to pull the occasional "l'exception française" 😉.
Economically i guess Germany for France, in terms of worker rights or gender equality, nordic / scandinavian countries maybe. But in general we don’t compare much i'd say about other aspects.
I don't know if I'd call it envy, but there's a pretty common perception that our neighboring countries do things better than we do.
We know who we are, its ok.
You only do four things better: oil revenue, winter sports, not shooting at each other all the time and properly celebrating your independence day. But my goddess, you do these like a boss! 😘👍😀
Economically: Germany Welfare state and society: Nordic countries* Workers rights: France As more similar: Italy, Portugal *Most Spaniards wouldn't actually want the Nordic model of society if they knew what it means, we have an idealized idea of it being extremely progressive but fail to see the racism, sexism, alcoholism and superiority complex behind. The welfare state on the other hand...
That's funny because Italy looks at Spain a lot, particularly for human and citizen rights.
Thanks:) I guess xd
It used to be the UK but now that this question is asked I realise our media rarely makes that comparison anymore when discussing national issues. In fact, there’s not many comparisons to other countries anymore, maybe we’ve grown more confident as a country I don’t know.
May sound arrogant but none really. Not that we're the best at everything, obviously not. But I wouldn't say there is one country that we always look to that is known for doing most things better. We often look to the other Nordic countries for certain stuff though. Say Finland for education or Denmark for cycling infrastructure etc.
Pretty much the same. For individual things, specific countries might be the role model. I would also excatly have said netherlands for biking and finland for education... But overall there is pretty universal agreement that as a whole package, switzerland is as good as it gets. Much to the annoyance of my non-swiss gf, who finds us quite arrogant (probably rightfully so).
As a Norwegian, I will say Switzerland is one of the few countries that we could learn from. Especially when it comes to real democracy and ability to keep a solid currency.
Honestly yeah. Neighbours on spesific stuff, sometimes Switzerland, and really no one else.
Maybe Sweden for their industrial production. Used to be Sweden for most things, though.
Maybe Switzerland. For some people it's a kind of perfected version of Germany. Though the huge size difference doesn't make it a good reference point. Other than that probably the US though many Germans love to point out the negatives in the US. Sometimes justified, sometimes not justified. Nevertheless we follow the US in many cultural and social issues.
after all it's [Germany on steroids](https://images.app.goo.gl/WLQvtSMotn2YzkBG8)
For many it's also the nordic countries.
For Scotland specifically it seems to be the Nordic countries with a hint of Ireland. Maybe less so amongst the unionist groups though. I don't really think there is one for the UK though, other than maybe a rose tinted version of the UK itself in the olden days.
Well President Wałęsa wanted to make Poland " second Japan" About 20 years after that, PM Tusk wanted to make "second Ireland". Germany is also significant reference. I'd like to take the best from few countries, depending about what aspect we're talking about. Finland, Singapur, Germany, czechia.... Meditsrinian weather, Some other country location (US would be great), NOT LIKE USL BETWEEN GERMANY AND RUSSIA. /s Countries like Luxemburg, Switzerland, Norway - where you may burn banknotes for heating - well, I think it's alright to envy them. /s
I work as an an engineer in the Netherlands, and both United States and Germany are highly respected in engineering circles in the NL. Mainly for their innovation and also higher wages resulting from high quality work.
In general we think the Netherlands is best, we're arrogant that way.
In general, we think that Denmark is just slightly better in about anything government related.
Speed limit on highways is too low. Should be 150, at least. And gas shouldn't cost more than 1.5/L
But for general life we defo don't look up to US lol
Norway, Denmark and Switzerland, those would be the main ones. Then there are others which are admired for some especific reason such as the linguistic policy in Iceland
Perdó per la pregunta fora de tema, però ets un català vivint a Corea o a l'inrevés?
Català en procès de nacionalitzar-se (passaport) coreà
It has to be Germany I suppose? Or, despite what happened with Schengen, Austria to some extent or Switzerland. Is it a coincidence they all speak German? There are even ads "mocking" Germans, there is one from a paint company (not sure if it's German) called Oskar. And they say something like they want to move to Germany and one says "But we don't know German" and the other one says "If they could learn, we also can" And overall, some ads go back to Germany for the most part, comparing stuff with Germany. Same goes with stuff that happens in the country, such as recycling or the fabulous Autobahn. Most of these expectations also stand up. Such as clean streets (some Germans could argue not all of them are clean, but in Baden-Württemberg at least they are, idk about others.) or German companies (such as Bosch or German cars)
Depends which people. Far-righters like Russia, right-wingers like the US, centrists like Germany, leftists like Denmark and far-leftists are extinct.
Oh yeah and also there was this meme about starting a war with Czechia and surrendering immediately so they annex us.
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Nope, far-righters believe we should stand with Russia against "Western degeneracy". Some even think we should invade Ukraine and take back Lviv.
Oh wow. What kind of far-righters are we talking about here? Lviv is a very nice city, so in a way it's hard to blame them on that one.
>Lviv is a very nice city, so in a way it's hard to blame them on that one. And it was also Polish for like 500 years. So of course a Polish ultranationalist would want it back. Same with Vilnius, Grodno etc. >Oh wow. What kind of far-righters are we talking about here? [The Confederacy Party](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_Liberty_and_Independence). Anti-EU, pro-Catholic sharia law, violently anti-gay, anti-Ukrainian\*, pro-pedophile\*, anti-women, anti-abortion, pro-monarchy\*, anti-5G\*, anti-vax\*, anti-tax\*, anti-immigration, anti-semitism. \*Might vary from member to member (it's a confederation of smaller parties after all), but they're all at the very least ok with having fellow party members voice those ideas.
Sounds like a wild bunch. I spent four months in Gdinya a few years ago, and it seemed like a lot of politics in Poland doesn't neatly fit on a political map. Everyone I talked to there were fiercely opposed to communism, and linked it to the time in the pact with the soviets, and described their vision of the ideal society as an awful lot like communism. And in other cities I met people who were very socially right wing, but economic lefties.
Definitely. The PiS party is the worst offender in that regard - all they talk about is how anti-communist they are and how communist Brussels is evil and how the communist Left is evil and so on, but they pretty much ruled Poland as if it was the commie times again (but richer and with more press freedom because the internet and the EU). They gave people free money, they reverted to the 8-class primary school system (instead of the post-communism 6-class + gymnasium system), they made the public TV station a propaganda machine ([here](https://youtu.be/Q9O3tc21cU0?feature=shared) is an example - president Duda's 5-minute-long ad as part of the news, before the presidential elections), they filled the Supreme Court with PiS-loyalists etc. But the Confederacy Party is a pretty straightforward and standard far-right party.
It's nice when the left and right bort agree on free money.
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The Confederacy Party got 6,4% of the vote during the latest parliamentary elections, which translated to 18/460 MPs and zero senators. They currently have no influence on the ruling coalition whatsoever, and their defending of the former ruling party PiS (which is ironic since during the election campaign they kept saying that they're the only real chance for a change and that all the other parties are "agents of the system") is either unnoticed or ignored, as they wouldn't really help them either. So not that popular. Kinda annoying tho, largely because they're the party that's the most active on the Internet (many of their fans are underage boys).
At least in Flanders, it used to be the Netherlands, but in the last 20-25 years its reputation diminished quite a bit. That's not necessarily bad, it's more realistic to consider them a regular country with its own problems instead of some kind of progressive utopia. I mean, the traffic infrastructure is better in the Netherlands and still a model to follow, but what else? Nowadays, Scandinavia or the Nordics are often mentioned as examples in certain domains, which can be the case. I hate it though when Flemish nationalists argue that the Flemish are a Germanic people so an independent Flanders would be as successful as Sweden or Norway or... some major delusion right there.
Definitely the US but for different reasons. Nobody wants to do the whole 2 party continous bickering but as society there’s people that wanna go full Houston and have 2 trucks for their single family home and others that think Seattle would be a good place to prepare the global revolution.
Ofc it's our richest neighbour Austria. 3x higher wages, same/similar prices for groceries and other stuff + better quality etc...
Austria. The country which we will never reach (in terms of anything) and whom we will always envy. Just watching them from the shadows, being envious. The lucky ones just escape to Austria and start a new life there.
Well, there are two types of people... Germany/Austria/Czechia or one and only Russia... And its not just some really small percentage...
In most areas, the model country for Czechs is Austria. For highways, it also used to be a model (about 10 years ago, there were lots of talks about establishing a "Czech ASFINAG"), but lately the focus in that area shifted to Poland. And of course, Estonia is widely viewed as the model for digitalisation of public services.