Poland’s right-wing Confederation party candidate has said the “choice is obvious” in the June 1 presidential elections – but refrained from giving his endorsement to either candidate.
In a May 28 video on his YouTube channel, Sławomir Mentzen told viewers “I see no reason to vote for Rafał Trzaskowski,” the candidate which PM Donald Tusk’s centre-left governing coalition supports.
Mentzen, who came third in the first round of the election with 15 per cent of the vote, summed up his YouTube meetings with the election’s remaining candidates, Trzaskowski and the Conservative (PiS)-backed Karol Nawrocki. With the online streamed meetings, Mentzen sought to use his electoral leverage as a possible kingmaker to entice the second-round candidates to endorse his eight-point policy agenda, the “Toruń Declaration”.
Mentzen told viewers Nawrocki had signed the “Toruń Declaration,” but Trzaskowski was unwilling to sign any of its pledges.
This “should settle the question of who to vote for”, for voters who agree with its contents, said Mentzen.
The eight points, which he said were pivotal for his voter base, included a commitment to not raise taxes, to oppose legislation on hate speech and disinformation, bar Ukraine from NATO, protect Polish sovereignty, and not to introduce additional gun controls.
He gave a particularly unfavourable review of Trzaskowski, accusing the candidate of abandoning promises, and deflecting issues by declaring “at this moment” there were no plans to accept migrants or adopt the euro, while also admitting “times change”.
However, he said he would not endorse Nawrocki.
“Both have their faults. I would rather the president was someone else other than these two, for example me,” he said.
“Vote for the one that is closer to you, because otherwise it could be even worse. I think I’ve helped you as much as I can. The rest is in your hands,” Mentzen said.
Mentzen’s joint Confederation leader Krzysztof Bosak said May 27 it would be in the party’s interests for Nawrocki to win the election, and Poland not to have a “leftist” president.
In a welcome development for Karol Nawrocki, hard right-wing candidate Grzegorz Braun said he would vote for Nawrocki in the second round.
Braun received slightly more than 6 per cent of the first-round vote.
“This will not change anything for my supporters as they took their decision a long time ago. But I just wanted to say it clearly without leaving anything to doubt, so I won’t feed you with evasive statements such as ‘anyone but Trzaskowski’,” he said.
Further support for Nawrocki arrived from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
Orbán said “Long live Nawrocki” in a May 29 speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee in Budapest, before attacking Tusk’s government as a threat to liberal democracy.
The Hungarian leader instead praised Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s former PiS prime minister.
“If you want to know what true liberal democracy looks like, ask him. Unheard-of things are happening in Poland. All European rules and principles are being trampled. And Brussels supports it,” Orbán said.
Orban’s endorsement of Nawrocki, in turn, was met with derision by senior figures from Tusk’s ruling coalition.
“Congratulations on the support from Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” foreign minister Radosław Sikorski wrote to Nawrocki, before asking: “Will you pursue a similar policy towards Putin and the European Union?”
Orbán’s Fidesz party has been close to PiS but the two parties have never actually been in the same European Parliament grouping.
PiS has been a member of the European Conservative Reformers (ECR). Orbán’s party has been a member of the European People’s Party (EPP), before forming the Patriots for Europe group.
Relations between PiS and Orbán cooled after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The PiS supported Ukraine, but Orbán retained close ties with Vladimir Putin and was publicly sceptical of Ukraine’s ability to win the war.
Trzaskowski and Nawrocki will face off in the presidential election’s second round June 1. Most polls show Trzaskowski with a narrow 1 to 2 per cent lead, with a turnout forecast to exceed 70 per cent.
However, OGB, the research agency which gave the most accurate prediction for the first round of the election, put Nawrocki narrowly ahead with a 1.2 per cent lead.
