Immediately after the announcement of the results of the Platform primaries, Rafał Trzaskowski, in a short speech in which he thanked the Platform members who voted for him for their support, emphasized that he was tough and had a lot of determination and courage. to fight in the election campaign. Unexpectedly, he made a statement that actually defines the strategic idea of the election campaign, and perhaps also the concept of holding the position of President of the Republic of Poland, that is, winning against PiS. It seems that the peculiar obsession of government leader and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, namely the destruction of Law and Justice, has been passed on to his subordinates to such an extent that they see no other purpose in practicing politics than winning against PiS. Although the leading politician of the Platform, Grzegorz Schetyna, recently put it more subtly on one of the private television channels, in his opinion the presidential elections should allow the “closing of the system”. Trzaskowski immediately said that his goal in the presidential elections is to win against PiS.
It was presented yesterday in Krakow in a very different way by Prof. Andrzej Nowak, on behalf of the almost 200-member Citizens’ Commission, presidential candidate Dr. Karol Nawrocki. The professor said about the candidate that, as a person who has never been a member of a political party, he can be a civilian candidate who has a chance to end the Polish-Polish war. President Jarosław Kaczyński supported this candidacy on behalf of Law and Justice with a similar justification, recalling that the party had several very good candidates, but the results of in-depth research were clear: Poles want to vote for a man who will have real capabilities. connect.
The candidate himself started by thanking his immediate family, wife and three children. He immediately said that he wanted Poland to win these elections and a good future for all Poles. He did not talk about the victory of the Platform, he talked about building a strong position of Poland in Europe and the world, about the need to build beyond division, because Poland is divided in the interests of our aggressive neighbor from the East. He also spoke about creating a good future for all generations of Poles, especially the young, so that the exodus of young Poles abroad from the 1990s and 2000s, which took place during the previous Left and Platform governments, would never happen again. are repeated. . Dr. Nawrocki presented himself as the complete opposite of Trzaskowski, not only in terms of knowledge and views, but even physical characteristics, because he is 11 years younger than his supposedly still young political rival and not much, but still 1 cm taller than the very tall Rafał.
But not only the differences in positions and ideas about Poland that distinguish the two candidates, Rafał Trzaskowski as deputy chairman of the Platform, will put pressure on the ‘performance’ of the Platform government in 2008-2015 (Trzaskowski was for some time even a minister in this government), but also the new one led by Tusk. Although the current government of the Platform and its coalition partners lasted less than a year, it is already clearly visible that their main goal is revenge against their predecessors, the materialization of which effectively deprives those in power of reason. Hence the rule “by tenacity and resolution”, ostentatious violation of the law and a complete lack of interest in the fate of ordinary people, a clinical example of which is the fate of flood victims in southern Poland. Because Tusk took the government’s responsibility primarily in PR terms for responding too late to the flood threat, for misleading about the threat that was growing by the hour, and even for the situation where the dam of a huge storage reservoir was breached. , only to later leave the flood victims to their fate. Although a law on aid to flood victims was passed, Tusk even appointed Minister Kierwiński as special plenipotentiary, but despite the passage of two months since this natural disaster, only a few of the more than 60,000 affected households received compensation for renovation or reconstruction. of houses, and only for the symbolic amount of several tens of thousands of zlotys, while the government had previously indicated PLN 100,000 and PLN 200,000 respectively.
But the lack of interest in the fate of ordinary people is not the only feature of the current Platform government and its coalition partners, for which Rafał Trzaskowski will have to take responsibility in the presidential election campaign. The subordination of the government’s actions to German interests is also clearly visible, as evidenced by the blocking of strategic investments initiated by the Law and Justice government. This concerns blocking the implementation of the CPK (the work in this area by Minister Lasek and his company is simulated), the construction of the first nuclear power plant (postponing the commissioning of the first block of this plant by as much as 8 until 2040), or blocking the expansion of seaports in this container port in Świnoujście, or ensuring the navigability of the Oder. All these investments are detrimental to German interests and ever since the PiS government started preparing for them or implementing them, they have been challenged in one way or another by the German federal government or state governments.
The Platform’s rule also means an almost cosmic pace of debt growth: this year’s budget with a deficit of PLN 240 billion and next year’s with an even larger deficit of PLN 290 billion, which on the expenditure side proves their electoral nature, and on the revenue side – their collapse, as a result of the Platform’s political agreement to the “privatization” of taxes. As a result, public debt is growing very quickly and will increase by more than 10 percentage points of GDP after just two years, i.e. by more than Złoty 400 billion. exceed the EU Maastricht criterion of 60% of GDP. In this situation, after less than a year in power, there is no money for literally everything, but the most striking example of these shortcomings is the situation in healthcare, where, among other things, by the end of the year there will be a deficit of about PLN 20 billion, which means that planned procedures in hospitals will have to be canceled and postponed next year. The cost of living of ordinary Poles is also rising rapidly, rising inflation is an increasing burden, and the increases in electricity, gas and district heating by 20-30% and the announcement of further increases are paralyzing both consumers and entrepreneurs.
But burdening Trzaskowski’s campaign with the “successes” of Tusk’s government does not mean victory for Dr. Nawrocki will come easily; after all, the former will have a huge financial and media advantage. It is therefore necessary to involve Nawrocki in the campaign, everyone who cares about Poland, its good future and the future of all Poles, especially the young generation.
Source: wPolityce
Emma Matthew is a political analyst for “Social Bites”. With a keen understanding of the inner workings of government and a passion for politics, she provides insightful and informative coverage of the latest political developments.