Politicians from four opposition groups and a representative of the Local Government Movement “Yes! For Poland” sign a statement to close the so-called Senate Pact, according to PAP information. However, no division into constituencies between individual parties takes place, nor names of candidates.
This Tuesday, representatives of the four opposition groups negotiating the creation of the so-called Senate Pact representatives will sign an agreement on the conclusion of the pact in the next elections. These are PO Secretary General Marcin Kierwiński, Deputy Chairman of the Sejm Piotr Zgorzelski (KP-PSL), MP Dariusz Wieczorek from the left and Senator Jacek Bury from Poland 2050.
Everything is on the right track, I think we’re going to sign an agreement next week that clearly states that the opposition parties want to go to the Senate elections together, that they intend to field one candidate in each constituency and that the Senate pact , which is in force during this parliamentary term, will be maintained
Kierwinski told PAP.
What did PSL and the Hołownia Party disagree with?
According to PAP information, the statement that will be signed (Gazeta Wyborcza was the first to inquire about it) contains only general statements about the willingness to participate in the elections and the joint submission of only one candidate in one constituency. According to some PAP interlocutors, it was initially planned to include a provisional division of districts between individual parties, but Poland 2050 and PSL would not agree to this.
PAP’s interlocutors from the parties that form the pact admit that the Senate pact participants count on winning 65 of the 100 districts. left and PSL.
We didn’t plan to enter a division of districts, it’s too early for that. After all, this is based on polls and internal research, and these could completely change by the summer
– PAP told a participant in the negotiations.
In addition, we included in the statement that current senators have the right to run for office if they wish, and this could further distort constituency divisions.
he adds. For similar reasons, as you can hear, there are no names yet, although preliminary adjustments are being made.
Some negotiators admit that the agreement is so general that it could have been signed long ago. The delay, as can be heard, was first due to opposition from PSL and then from Szymon Hołownia’s group.
Condition for local governments. Everything was ruined by the commissioned poll
Tuesday’s agreement will also be signed by the current Senator, Zygmunt Frankiewicz, as a representative of the Local Government Movement “Yes! For Poland”. However, according to PAP information, “Yes! “For Poland”, will not be subject of the Senate Pact, although such ambitions were expressed by Sopot President and President Jacek Karnowski.
According to PAP information, local government officials from “Yes! For Poland” can of course run for the Senate, but either from the Civic Coalition or PSL pool. As you can hear from the pact negotiators, Jacek’s situation Karnowski and “Yes! For Poland” was especially aggravated by the election poll commissioned by this movement some time ago, in which it appeared as an independent entity and presented Rafał Trzaskowski as its leader. According to unofficial PAP information, the publication of this poll caused anger among the leadership of the PO and definitively buried the already slim chance that “Yes for Poland” would appear as a separate topic of the Senate Pact.
The local government works very closely with us in all talks about the Senate Pact and for example the role of Zygmunt Frankiewicz is very important in the talks. And there have always been many local government officials on Civic Platform or Civic Coalition lists, and it will be this time too
Kierwinski told PAP.
READ MORE: Will local government officials join the election game? The poll would put them… third place! ‘There is currently talk of coalition formation in the Sejm’
PAP information shows that many of the members of the movement, such as Zygmunt Frankiewicz or Wadim Tyszkiewicz, will be able to use this provision of the Senate Pact agreement, which says about the priority of candidacy by current senators. The same goes for other currently independent senators, such as Krzysztof Kwiatkowski.
Elections in 2019
The first senatorial pact was concluded before the parliamentary elections in 2019 by the main opposition groups – Civic Coalition, PSL and the left. Although it was not strictly enforced everywhere (for example in Łódź former PO politician Krzysztof Kwiatkowski ran as an independent candidate and defeated the candidate of the left, Małgorzata Niewiadomska-Cudak), there were also constituencies where, for example, candidates from the PSL and the Left competed ), thanks to him, the opposition collectively won at least the Senate elections, although Law and Justice won the Sejm elections.
READ ALSO: Next week the opposition will sign the Senate pact. “The protagonists will be the politicians who have been negotiating for months”
olk/PAP
Source: wPolityce