The guests on the program “Gość Wiadomości” on TVP Info were PiS spokesperson Rafał Bochenek and PSL MP Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski. During the discussion, the two politicians clashed over the alliance between the Third Way and KO, and then over Manfred Weber’s controversial remarks.
Rafał Bochenek pointed to frictions within the opposition when it came to setting the electoral starting point.
What unfolded on screen looked like chaos within the opposition for a long stretch. It recalled the long-running drama about uniting the entire opposition on a single Sejm list. Yet nothing came of it as the participants argued over seats and arrangement. In the PSL itself and in the Third Way—perhaps not the Third Way as some perceive, but rather the Third Street—the contention persisted, and the auction for seats dragged on until the final moment. Bochenek asserted that the ruling party differentiates itself from the opposition by offering Polish citizens a stable, predictable future.
Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski argued that the Third Way could siphon votes away from PiS.
“We are the only coalition capable of drawing votes from PiS. There are many Poles who backed PiS again in 2019 and felt let down. They will not vote for PO or the left, and we are two center-right parties. Former PiS voters could switch to us fastest. That is why there is anxiety, because if the Third Way becomes the third party in the Sejm, we would effectively govern together,”
he stated.
The Third Way Coalition is a group that aims to persuade Donald Tusk to return to power. “The return of Donald Tusk as prime minister would mean poverty and a collapse of the Polish economy,” Bochenek emphasized.
The government expected to be formed in October would face a grave challenge in managing off-budget debt, Bartoszewski warned.
“The budget is in good shape; it is balanced,” a government spokesman countered. “Your slogan was Rostowski and Tusk’s: ‘there is no money and there will be no money.’ You repeated it to the Polish people. Today there is money.”
“Tusk’s victory in Poland equals a de facto loss of Polish sovereignty,” declared the program participants, addressing the head of the EPP Manfred Weber.
Weber had spoken of fighting the Polish government, a stance that drew a firm reaction and questions about interference in elections among EU members.
“It is wrong to meddle in elections between EU countries,” Bartoszewski acknowledged.
Bochenek noted that Donald Tusk’s possible win in Poland would represent a de facto transfer of influence to Berlin and a strengthening of German sway in Poland, pointing to what he framed as years of governance under that dynamic. He added that such talk amounts to fiction, a claim contested by Bartoszewski as mere details about past European Council leadership and policy years under Angela Merkel, including issues tied to relocation debates and the “Fit for 55” package promoted by Germans.
Bartoszewski retorted that these concerns stem from other people’s obsessions.
“These are the facts,” the government spokesman concluded at the end of the program, underscoring the debate’s sensitive nature and the high stakes involved.
tkwl/TVP info
Source: wPolityce