The Polish presidential debate between two leading candidates looks to have been scuppered after the government-controlled public television service decided to exclude two independent Conservative broadcasters from participation in event that had been scheduled for April 11.
Karol Nawrocki, the opposition PiS candidate, was ready to attend the debate as long as all five news channels operating in Poland were allowed to be involved.
Government controlled TVP , though, refused to have the independents TV Republika and wPolsce24 present, but the commercial network Polsat issued a statement that it had no objection to their involvement and TVN were non-committal.
Representatives of TV Republika and wPolsce24 were on April 10 prevented from attending a meeting about the presidential debate. Police intervened when journalists from the two stations protested at TVP headquarters in Warsaw.
Paweł Szefernaker, head of Nawrocki’s campaign, told reporters: “We wanted to persuade the government side that the rights of viewers of all five news channels should be respected and their journalists allowed to participate and ask questions at the debate, but there was no will to allow that to happen.”
But he refused to be drawn on whether Nawrocki would turn up to the debate. His opponent’s camp has said that they accepted the terms and conditions set by the three networks to participate and that their candidate would definitely be present.
The idea of a head-to-head debate between Nawrocki and Rafał Trzaskowski, the main party candidate of the governing coalition, had been floated by PiS some weeks ago.
On April 9, in a social media post Trzaskowski invited Nawrocki to debate with him in Końskie, central Poland, along with the participation of three TV networks: TVP, TVN and Polsat.
Nawrocki responded on the same day that he was willing to take part and have the two campaign teams discuss the matter. He said his “only condition was that all news channels operating on Polish terrestrial television be allowed to send journalists to the debate and to televise it”.
The news about Trzaskowski inviting Nawrocki to a one-on-one debate in the presence of journalists infuriated two other candidates, the Speaker of Parliament Szymon Hołownia and the Confederation party’s Sławomir Mentzen.
Hołownia, who leads the centrist Poland 2050 party that is part of the governing coalition, described the behaviour of TVP as “an outrage and a dereliction of their public duty to treat all candidates equally ahead of the first round of voting”.
“Commercial channels can hold their own debates on their own terms but public television should not be suggesting who the main candidates are and helping them,” he said.
His colleague and government minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz went further, saying: “This was the first time public television excluded candidates in such a way.”
She added that although she might not like TV Republika, that channel had invited all candidates to a presidential debate and had acted “fairly”.
TV Republika is organising a presidential debate to which all candidates have been invited on April 14.
Trzaskowski and the Left’s Magdalena Biejat have refused to attend but other candidates said they would be present.
A debate involving all the candidates standing in the first round of the presidential election was set to take place on on Monday May 12 on TVP with participation of TVN and Polsat, just six days before polling day.
Sławomir Mentzen, the Confederation party’s candidate who has been polling strongly at around 20 per cent, just a behind Nawrocki, also criticised the idea of a head-to-head between Nawrocki and Trzaskowski.
“It’s further evidence of how Tusk’s party and PiS wish to preserve their monopoly over Poland’s political scene by excluding everyone else from the debate”, he said, adding: “This debate about having a debate represents Trzaskowski helping Nawrocki because he does not want me in the second round as the opponent.”
Mentzen has repeatedly signalled he would debate with Trzaskowski, Nawrocki or both in any TV station of their choosing but neither have been willing to take him up on his offer.
TV Republika and wPolsce24 on April 9 had their broadcasting terrestrial TV licences revoked by a Warsaw court on the grounds that they had been improperly granted by the State broadcasting regulator (KRRiTV) but will continue broadcasting pending an appeal against the verdict.
