2023-10-13 13:52:55
Twenty hours at the foot of the Copernicus statue, in the center of Warsaw. Three days before the vote, Slawomir Mentzen climbs onto a small platform and addresses the crowd of his supporters: around 500 people, the vast majority young men, who cheer him under the placid gaze of a few police officers.
For forty minutes, the co-leader of Konfederacja (Confederation), the small Polish far-right party, hammers home his campaign themes: rejection of European standards, cessation of social benefits paid to Ukrainian refugees, end of compulsory payment of social security contributions for entrepreneurs…
“The ruling party is proposing to renovate the stairwells. We want fundamental changes. Today, Ukrainians who have worked for just one day in Poland will be able to apply for a retirement pension. It’s a time bomb… We want to help Ukraine win the war, not give Ukrainians preferential conditions at home,” says the politician, who speaks quickly and continues the campaign arguments.
Konfederacja is the newcomer to Polish politics. It was created in 2019 on the basis of an alliance of small parties which already has 11 mandates in Parliament. It is co-directed by Slawomir Mentzen and Krzysztof Bosak. On the occasion of the legislative elections of October 15, the movement is credited with 10 to 11% of voting intentions and is aiming with this potential score for 40 parliamentary seats. Konfederacja thus hopes to shake up the game of the major parties, taking advantage of voters’ weariness with those who have dominated Polish politics for twenty years, the Law and Justice party (PiS) and the Civic Platform (PO).
A nationalist and libertarian party
Konfederacja presents himself with an openly anti-European and libertarian program. The party wants to scrap all social policy, massively lower taxes, remove all constraints and several ministries. He does not openly come out in favor of leaving the European Union, but wants to put an end to all the constraints linked to it. He is also opposed to the arrival of migrants.
This far-right party is also opposed to compulsory vaccination, to stopping the sale of combustion engine vehicles, to the obligation to renovate housing… That day, just before Slawomir Mentzen’s speech , a local candidate pleaded for a massive reduction in the price of parking lots in the city.
The party thus plays on a few very simple slogans. He says he wants “take power to return it to the citizens” and promises for everyone “a house, a garden, a car and a dog”.
This project is perfectly suited to a young, male electorate composed mainly of small entrepreneurs. This is exactly the profile of Kamil, 37 years old, restaurateur, who drinks in the words of the leader of Konfederacja. What does he like about his program? ” Allhe said, tax cuts, the end of social assistance to Ukrainian refugees, the independence of Poland from the EU and the removal of PiS and the PO from power. »
Alone against everyone
At 47, Slawomir Mentzen is himself a successful entrepreneur who made a career as a tax consultant and owns a brewery. He speaks with the confidence of an already established politician. Father of three children, he created controversy in the past with homophobic and anti-Semitic comments, before becoming an ardent defender of Polish interests.
Slawomir Mentzen swears that his party will not enter into any coalition after the elections, and that he wants to change things rather than help the old system to persist. He attacks the system head-on: journalists “liars” and the politicians “thieves”. It remains to be seen whether the new elected representatives of his party will be able to resist the call of power if the PiS were to be short of a few seats to constitute a majority…
#shaking #major #parties