Poland’s opposition Civic Platform party is taking a page from the playbook of its Law and Justice (PiS) party rivals — stepping back and choosing a more palatable candidate to head an eventual government.
Grzegorz Schetyna, the head of Civic Platform, on Tuesday said that if his party wins the October 13 parliamentary election and forms a government, the prime minister would be Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, an MP currently serving as deputy speaker of parliament.
The move is a surprise, as Schetyna had been expected to lead any future government headed by the party he helped rebuild after its catastrophic loss to Law and Justice in 2015.
However, Schetyna is deeply unpopular in the country — a recent survey found that 58 percent of those polled thought he should quit as party leader — and lacks the charisma thought necessary to overcome PiS’s large lead. A survey released earlier this week had PiS with 45 percent support, while the Civic Coalition — a grouping fronted by Civic Platform — trailed far behind on 30 percent. The opposition has been unable to dent that lead despite a host of scandals besetting Law and Justice.
Kidawa-Błońska is supposed to change that.
“People want calm and common sense. Poles want someone who will think of them and who will be concerned with their issues,” Schetyna said as he made the announcement.
Schetyna is copying a similar move made by his rival, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński. In 2015 Kaczyński, who is also seen as divisive and unpopular, put forward Andrzej Duda as his party’s presidential candidate and Beata Szydło as prime minister — both of whom won. Although he’s officially just an ordinary MP, Kaczyński is Poland’s de facto ruler.
PiS hasn’t said whether current Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (also chosen by Kaczyński) will continue in that role if the party wins the parliamentary election.
“First we have to win the election,” Morawiecki said during a recent party rally, “then the political leadership will make a decision.”
Morawiecki added that “I am convinced that [Kaczyński] would be an excellent and the best prime minister” — a sentiment echoed by other senior PiS officials.
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