Poland's post-election political scene

ATT MODS: If possible, please do not merge. Since the elections are over, I suggest this new thread dealing with events on Poland's poltical stage in the post-election period. For starters, the first post-election political-preference poll. According to a survey carried out by Ibris, Poles expressed their support as follows:

United Right: 36, PO 19, Petru 12, Kukiz 10, United Left 6, Razem 5, PSL 4 and Korwin 4.

Noteworthy is that PO fared worse in the survey than in both the last pre-election poll and in the election itself. Petru has moved ahead and may soon match or eclipse PO.

The ZL (excommies) have lost some support. Razem would have made it into the Sejm but the PSL would not.


The losers are busy badmouthing, contesting, deriding, provoking and sticking their big nose in the cabinet-forming process which is none of their business. Szydło said Gowin would be defence minister, Kaczyński will run things from the backseat, Macierewicz hysteria is being whipped up, Duda chose the wrong date for the first Sejm session because Poland won't be represented at a EU summit, bla-bla-bla, etc., etc., ad nauseam.

Szydło did not say Gowin would be def. min., only that he was a candidate. Neither the law nor the constitution stipulates how a government is chosen by the winning side. The ex-commies won the 1993 election but their leader did not head up the govt because they but Pawlak into the PM's seat, as was their right. The AWS did make their leader Krzaklewski the PM but chose an outsider Buzek.

It was Tusk, who closely follows the Polish poltical scene and knows 11th Nov. is a public holdiay who set the 12th Nov. date for the summit. Was this deliberate sabotage -- another PO spanner hurled into the works?

If the losers showed a but of goodwill, Poland could be represented at the summit. Kopacz could submit her resignation in writing and attend the summit later in the day. She could even do so in person and be flown to Malta -- it isn't Vancouver! But for that to happen some PO goodwill would be needed -- a commodity in extremely short supply amongst those embitteredadn vindictive losers.

Rather than stoking the flames of the Polish-Polish war, as they have been for the past decade, the Platformers would do beter to clean up their own act. Their party is fraught wtih factionalism, is unravelling at the seams and quite likely their support base will soon be eclipsed by by Petru's Nowoczesna.

Since we are talking about the future, what are you all think are the future prospects for Grzegorz Braun?

It is a pity such a good politician have still so small popularity.

Personally I believe he is a bit too extreme and would rank him with RN, Korwin and Palikot in terms of radicalism. More of a happening-monger than a serious politician and it's no wonder. Braun started out with the Orange Alternative, a satriical protest group that appeared in the late PRL period.

It is a pity indeed as mr.Braun would make a great president of Poland me thinks.


It is a pity indeed as mr.Braun would make a great president of Poland me thinks.

The majority of Poles disagree as attested to by his poor showing in the presidential race. Poles want moderate, even-keeled head of state and that's why they elected Duda and rejected that buffoon Komorowski.

No! The majority of Poles isn't even aware of mr.Braun's existence and that's the reason for his poor showing in presidential race.

Fair enough. Only goes to show he did not run a porper campaign. But even if he had, his chances of making it into the second round, let alone winning, were zero.

I Think that the majority of the Poles even didn't knew about him... That is the reason behind his bad voting.

If he had a rich campaign like PiS / PO, maybe things would be different.

Where is Szydło, Polonius?

I feel sorry for her, personally. All that effort criss-crossing Poland and Kaczyński threw her onto the scrapheap as soon as the polls closed. Now she's on "holiday" (what Prime Minister-elect goes on holiday after winning an election when there's a cabinet to form?) - and it's clearly that she has no role in the formation of the government.

That's for the winning side to decide who holds what post. Losers have no say in the matter although they are now squawking the loudest. It's in the PO's own interest to focus on their own political survival which is becoming precarious. Will PO make it to the next election with at least its present 19% support or will it drop to near (or maybe below) the threshold level? Oto jest pytanie!

I'm sure she knew what her role was. Fish in the swing voters, and then when the mission is accomplished: Dracula returns. I also think the National Front in France are also playing a PR game distancing themselves from their great leader. (dad's girl)

Except it's backfiring already. There's a lot of centrist female voters that are furious about how Szydło has been sidelined.


Not really. The opposition is now having a field day with pointing out that Macierewicz is back after he was hidden away during the election campaign.


I think you've forgotten just how strong PO are in many local areas. One bad election result doesn't change the fact that Warsaw, Poznań and many other places are PO strongholds.

No such luck. Donald Dracula made a mess of things in Poland and high-tailed it off to Brussels before he could face the State Tribunal. He is unlikely to return earlier than when his term expires. They probably won't want him there much longer, so he'll be back in Poland hoping the dust has settled and his have been swept under the rug and forgottten.


Not for long. The failed expriment of the Three Tenors (two of whom were eliminated by power-hungry Tusk) will soon be only a memory. The sooner the better!

Given the election results (a shift from PO towards Nowoczesna in many places), I think you'll be waiting a long time for anything to change.

Eight years without having to view those ugly Kopacz, Niesołowski, Schetyna and Mucha mugs on the telly (OK, Mucha isn't that ugly!) will enable the failed Platformer experiment to slip into blessed oblivion.

They've clearly not given up on the idea of dumping her. I give her two months at most before she's looking for a party. Note that Polonius can't actually defend what PiS is doing (though it's pretty stupid and will alienate the people that voted for them) so he keeps trying to change the subject.

And now add the mess with Duda showing he has no idea about how the EU is run (and or wants to stress to the EU that the bumbling amateurs with no idea of basic protocal are back!)

After an arduous day of working on the cabinet line-up she took time out and upon the British ambassador's invite saw the latest Bond film. You expect her to work 22 horus a day?

Indeed, if you look online, there are a lot of female voices saying that they voted for Szydło, not Kaczyński. Polonius has no defence - she ran the entire campaign on being the Prime Minister if PiS won, yet Kaczyński has dominated the media since then. I was looking at the right-wing weeklies today, and what was astounding was the absence of Szydło.

After Kaczyński's victory speech, there's no way that Szydło will survive more than a few months. And if the PiS populist promises come off, there's no way that Kaczyński is going to tolerate a popular leader that might threaten his position.


What's he done now? Protocol has always been a difficult topic for them :D

I think even a brainless and heartless PiS-basher like yourself can appreciate the fact that poor Beata ran herself ragged criss-crossing Poland during the campaign. Don't you think she desrved a short rest after that gruelling ordeal?

No way she could be prime minister after that ordeal, at least there's an experienced alternate waiting in the wings (with a giant hook at the ready).

Not having anything to do with the actual, real country of Poland on a day to day level you have no idea what the blowback will be if Szydło's pushed aside. There's no way the government would last more than a year or two (the promise to voters that won them victory was a post-Kaczyński PiS - if they reneg on that then all bets are off).


He scheduled the opening day of the Sejm (when he and Kopacz are supposed to be present) on a day when there's an informal summit meeting of the EU, which requires that every country send the head of state or prime minister). The date of the meeting has been known since April.

now there's an undignified wrangle with PiS trying to figure out how dig itself out of this latest hole..... (and Poland's reputation as a serious country will take a hit).

She certainly put a lot of effort in, but taking a break during the formation of the new cabinet is quite surreal. I'm still wondering why you can't just admit that it's obvious that there's a lot of discussion going on as to whether she should be allowed to become Prime Minister.

The fact that she's absent from all the right-wing weeklies says it all - there's no plan to allow her to be a genuine leader. She might be a figurehead, but she'll be gone within months. Kaczyński's no fool - he knows that if Szydło was to gain a lot of personal power, then it would be very easy for the Szydło-Duda tandem to force him out of PiS.

My impression was that Duda doesn't have the cojones to stand up to Kaczyński....

Well, without a very strong Szydło as the Prime Minister, he wouldn't stand a chance.

I read an interesting article somewhere that outlined how almost everyone in Duda's office is also a Kaczyński loyalist and that Duda was more or less told who to appoint to what position. It really is cult-like behaviour.

All you Platfusy, Szechterites and assorted crypto-commies have this obsession about "standing up" to Kaczyński and seem to believe that everybody's sole priority is getting rid of him. Instead, PiS is developing as a strong team player whose teamwork has enabled them to win the presidency and become the first party that Polish voters have enabled to govern independently -- quite an accomplishment in a poltically fragtmented country like Poland. As a well-coordinated team, they will continue to work for the benefit of Poland. And all the frustrated squawking, jeering and Dutch uncle advice from the losers won't make a bloody bit of difference.

Nice propaganda, but the reality is that if it wasn't for a certain Zandberg, they would have been considerably short of a majority in the Sejm.


Nice theory, but we already saw a couple of days after the election how Gowin was willing to go against the official line.


Oh, there's no frustration here. I already know how the PiS reforms are going to come up against some very strong opposition. The ZNP is already preparing to go on strike against the PiS proposals to get rid of gimnazja, and I'm hearing a consistent message that local authorities will simply refuse to execute the plans.

When the time comes, we'll hear nothing but bitter excuses from PiS about how the media destroyed them.

So through all your petty-mindedness you are not even willing to give a democratically elected majority a fighting chance. The fact that they are the first politcial camp to win a full mandate means something. For that reason alone they deserve respect and some some measure of confidence rather mean-spirited mud-slinging, bellyaching and nitpicking.

No! because democrats are for a church state divide.

You forgot the wreckers and running dog imperialists...

Tell us more about the glorious five year plan, comrade!

Yes, the fact that a political party can gain the majority of seats in the parliament by winning the support of only 19% of Polish voters means that Poland needs to take a long hard look at its electoral system.

Yes, Harry, and if we consider that about 50% of voters don't vote, I seriously doubt that whoever gets elected does represent a lot of people ;). This of course goes for all countries, not only Poland.