Presidential elections 2020 - your opinions about campaign, candidates

You mean in person? No.
But I did see a live interview and it was kind of yawn...
I'm not saying he is a bad person, not intelligent or anything like that (even if too conservative for my taste) just simply that he was completely uninteresting and easy to forget.


Yyy, wouldn't say so...

There are also less known candidates. E.g., Sławomir Grzywa. I can read his regular political declarations in online comment sections. He is against the current establishment (PiS, PO) but promises to defend democracy. He claims only he is able to defeat Duda. He runs his party - Sami Swoi.

forum.interia.pl/wizytowka-SlawomirGrzywa/aktywnosci/komentarze

youtu.be/wONndS8_lik

I see the term "second round" used here. Could someone briefly explain what that means please? How many "rounds" are there? Are all candidates included in a "round" or just the candidates from one party (which would make it similar to our primary votes)? And I presume that the last round would result in the election if your President - true?

All candidates are in the first round. Now if any candidate gets over 50% there is only one (happened only once so far). Otherwise 2 candidates with the best score go to a second round and the winnner becomes the president

Perfect. Thank you.

Does it mean you are really interested in the elections? :)

I was mainly interested in the election process. But I will try to follow the election too when I find articles to read. It's difficult since "objective news" seems to be an oxymoron these days.

Well, you need to look up in foreign media then, they are not so vitally interested in Polish affairs so they can remain objective. :):)

He's not afraid of debate, and he seems to understand that you have to maximise every minute on TV. The latest ploy of challenging Ziobro in debate was fantastic - it forces the author of the legal deforms to answer for them. Ziobro won't agree, and WKK comes across as the winner by default. Savvy.

But one thing about Kidawa-Błońska - PO are starting to wake up under Budka, and she has the advantage of being able to spend 3 months campaigning.

PiS are making mistakes, such as Kempa's latest idiotic comments, and Duda isn't going into this election from a position of strength.

What comment?


Hmm... Kidawa-Blonska needs to avoid any debate if she want to sand a change regardless of tons of money they put into their campaign.

Spot on.


Exactly. That's why I think that any of the three candidates I mentioned (WKK, Hołownia and Bosak) stands a good chance against Duda in the second round. WKK having the support of PSL, Kukiz, and millions of people who are sick and tired of PO-PiS war, is probably most likely of the three to make it to the second round.


I can't see her beating Duda. She's just a female version of Komorowski, with the same potential to totally embarass herself (and Poland in the process).

Why do you think so? I can't say I know how she would do in a debate.

Yes, but Duda has his own supporters who don`t vote for PiS but will vote for him. A recent poll revealed that: PiS - 35%, Duda - 43%.

I don't think he stands a chance. The centrist-left voters would be disgusted by him, and Duda would win by virtue of centre/left voters not bothering to vote.


I think he would have had a chance if Schetyna was still leading PO, but that moment has gone. Never say never in Presidential elections, but Kidawa-Błońska is doing the right thing so far, and PO have the ability to spend the entire 1.9m allowed on this campaign.


It's on a knife edge, I think. Duda's strange behaviour is being noticed, and now the opposition have figured that the Italian Sardines tactic also works.

What Kidawa-Błońska needs to do now is to hanmer home some simple points where PiS are failing badly - housing, education, health and international relations. Focus on those, and Duda will struggle, esoecially if she holds press conferences outside schools and hospitals closed in the last 4 years.

I've seen something where apparently Duda's people have mentioned 9m votes as bring the magic number. Will 75% of Konfederacja voters really support Duda?

Exactly. Everybody was so sure Komorowski had the election won in 2015 and all of a sudden, wham. :):)

It's why the courts issue is so strange - Duda is mired in it, and idiots like Nawicki tearing up documents will make it even harder for Duda to repeat the "President of the Poles" trick.

And "President of some of the Poles" doesn't have that same ring.... but he was elected when PiS was pretending to have reformed itself into a more or less normal Christian Democrat party... now the luster is off and it's neo-PRL patronage and party connections all the way and he's tied himself to that.

He hasn't broken character yet... but how much of this kind of thing can he take?

wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/andrzej-duda-wygwizdany-podczas-przemowienia/qq5eplg

I think this might be the key to the whole campaign. If they keep pressurising him in the sane way as the Italians did to Salvini, then it will become harder and harder for him as the campaign goes on. Salvini didn't break, but there's no denying that it hurt him and Lega with such organised resistance.

They could try to do it to Kidawa-Błońska on return, but that could backfire badly, especially as it would be seen as the government abusing candidates. It's why I think this election is going to be much harder for PiS, especially as Duda is prone to doing stupid things.

Which just guarantees that the next one will be more radical.... pushing more or less moderate populists out of the public space just creates less moderate ones.

But yeah, Adrian does not impress me with his sang-froid.... constant needling will drive him away from public events...

It's already happening - wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114884,25685338,duda-wygwizdany-w-pucku-sobolewski-kidawa-blonska-powinna.html

I'd say that this is a critical moment for Kidawa-Błońska - if they can keep up the pressure in public on Duda, then they might just cause him to do a Komorowski and only turn up in PiS heartlands. It's obvious that PiS have been rattled by this, because the media was full of "Duda got heckled" and not "Duda said xxx" - which is what they desperately want to avoid.

What's interesting is that PiS are behaving like crybabies over this, accusing Kidawa-Błońska of behaving like Jachira and crying about how unfair it is.

"I am ready for debate, and I expect similar declarations from all the candidates, including Andrzej Duda."

What a Photoshop.. . :)
Sadly the debates in Poland suck. Most of the time they are non issue. A bit of air time and that is it.

The English saying: what goes around, comes around has several Polish counterparts. One of the recent ones is: karma returns to you. Duda is experiencing the same fate at the hands of the opposition today as Bronisław Komorowski at the hands of PiS` hate squads in 2015.

Sorry, dear Mr President, it is not a treat, it`s a trick! hahahaha

And it is going to go on. Their only choice is to call riot police to disperse anti-Duda crowds. But it will cost them more lost percent.

Which would be more bad PR for him. Even a loss of 0.5% as a result of such an action could be the difference between winning and losing for him.

Bosak's wedding made a bit of 'szum' in the press, mostly the gossip one of course. Comments are divided onto those that wish to see him in Belvedere and thosewho make fun of a cover marriage...

I completely forgot he took part in 'Dancing with the stars'....

They didn't even bother to conceal their contempt for him, did they? The comments I've seen were all thinly veiled 'oh look, how convenient', with allusions to various... rumours about him.

Tit for tat series continued. PiS demands apology from PO for antiDuda protesters` behaviour. PO releases a spot reminding PiS of their own sins when they abused their opponents in a nasty way.

twitter.com/i/status/1227637101220564992

On a side nore are there parties in Poland for people like me (socially conservative - I value traditions) but fiscally liberal (small and middle local business needs more support than abusive huge multinational corporations! and wealthy elites need to pay higher % taxes)

Your question suits another thread:
https://polishforums.com/news/poland-characterizing-political-parties-61978/

PSL is defined in the thread as "agrarian, conservative"; the description is no longer valid. Small towns and villages vote mainly for PiS nowadays, and in recent years PSL has transformed into a centre-right Christian-Democratic party. They've always had this inclination but in the past many farmers/villagers voted for them, so they felt obliged to stress their agrarian roots, not to alienate their main voter base.