[Opinion] New Europe's return to the Dark Ages

The widely expected victory of Jarosław Kaczyński's Law and Justice Party in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Poland Sunday will mark the end of an era in the history of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia - or "New Europe", to use a term coined by former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. After the fall of communism, political elites in the four countries were long united in their commitment to European integration and the strengthening of transatlantic ties.