Although it is time to sum up Andrzej Duda's 10-year presidency, I do not intend to review this unfortunate “adventure” which was the participation of society and the state during this period.
This does not mean that an analytical and applicable conclusion should not be drawn from the systemic experience of this era. After candidates for the office of president participating in the 2025 election campaign, it is not visible that any of them are prepared to challenge the situation and propose concrete changes. The academic community sleeps too, where by studying the constitution in the faculties of law or political discipline it should ferment critical thinking, announcing various initiatives of debates about essential systemic changes. A good chance will be the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the existing constitution, which is coming in 2027. For now, no 1 is providing for an initiative in this respect.
The choice of the head of state in Poland mostly and straight gives it strong legitimacy (legitization), but this does not translate into real powers of power. According to the current Constitution, the president of Poland is attributed primarily to the function of arbitrator, while apart from Alexander Kwasniewski, all presidents created and formed competitive centres of power. erstwhile they claimed to make independent rulings, this always threatened the stableness of governments. Disputes and quarrels against this background within the executive authority have led to an imageable impairment of this institution.
The presidency of those active in political conflict with their opponents was as bad as it was during the word of office Lech Walesa or Lech Kaczyński. It was even worse in situations where the president was completely dependent on his authority. The last president broke all records in this respect, becoming a hostage ("notary") of the PiS camp and its leader at his own request.
Parliamentary cabinet systems are based on the parliamentary majority and do not share real power with the head of state. This is usually representative. This is the case in the monarchic systems of large Britain, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Spain, as well as the republican (e.g. Germany, Italy, Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary). Sometimes there is simply a mixed strategy in the latter, which combines parliamentary and presidential elements. This is the case in France of the V Republic, whose political strategy is commonly called the semi-presidential. The actual head of the execution is the president there, and the Prime Minister is fundamentally the contractor of the President's will and parliamentary majority. If the parliamentary majority does not respond to the president's political will, this can change the government with the resolution of the parliament.
Hybrid system
The Polish parliamentary-office strategy due to the strengthened position of the head of state is surely hybrid. It is simply a circumstantial phenomenon from which there are not necessarily affirmative consequences. His creation was based on the leadership aspirations of Lech Walesa, or alternatively his political Suflers in the Kaczyński brothers, who advocated strengthening the President's position as a guarantor of democratic transformation. In the 1997 Constitution, the powers of the president were saddened, but the conflict and conflict regulations were not avoided.
The case of the Polish Constitution is not the only one, erstwhile many of its imprecise wordings have emerged as a consequence of the tedious abrasion of positions and attempts to compromise the reconciliation of various rations. However, regardless of the vague provisions, even the least reasonable students know that political culture plays an crucial function in the functioning of the political strategy in addition to standards. It is mostly the attitude, values and patterns of behaviour that find the building of wise, prudent and effective coexistence of power and citizens in the state, treated by all participants as the highest good.
An example of a two-point presidency Aleksandra Kwasniewski showed clearly how much in the exercise of this highest office in the state depends on the individual qualities of man, his communication and moderating abilities, allowing skillfully bypassing reefs associated with co-regulation (whether within 1 political camp or within alleged co-habitation with the another camp).
The tradition of mature democracies, not necessarily only those "liberal", is to study to the office of the head of the state persons with recognised authority and achievements, serious and socially respected. In Italy, for example, these functions are usually performed by people with long political experience, wise age and experience. Recommendations on their concilation predispositions and their ability to patiently build hard compromises play a major function in the selection of presidential candidates.
In political and legal doctrine, as in the systemic practice of the 3rd Republic, the president is expected to warrant optimal conditions for the functioning of the state, stableness and efficiency of its body institutions. As parliamentaryism combined with the political breakdown of the political scene carries the threat of shaky and short-term governments, effective arbitration of the head of state is needed. Government crises require participation or external interference. Until the Polish political scene was stabilised and the fresh constitution was adopted, the function of the president – then Lech Wałęsa – was peculiarly active and valuable in this regard. In the case of president Andrzej Duda, he served alternatively the function of brake stabilisation. For example, following the elections of October 15, 2023, alternatively of entrusting the government to the winning coalition, he insisted on a fantamagorical number government, without its chances of lasting power.
The function of the body is derived from the practice of office. And this frequently gives a format to political leadership. In parliamentary-office systems, this leadership usually has a symbolic-ceremonial dimension. president uoasabia is the majesty of the state and so has the right of full representation in external relations (ius omnimodee representationis), which does not mean that it is not bound by protocol standards and actually limited by the real entities of power (government and parliament).
The model of a completely neutral and even politically passive head of state in the parliamentary strategy has been preserved since the times of the 3rd French Republic (1870-1940). 1 of France’s experts Maurice Duverger led ironically the function of specified a figurehead to "cut ribbons at chrysanthemum exhibitions". In Polish systemic practice in the times of the Second Republic began with the reproduction of models of the 3rd French Republic in the Constitution of March 1921. Then, on the basis of the April Constitution of 1935, there was a tendency to strengthen the President's constitutional position. However, due to the outbreak of planet War II, they had no chance of becoming a political entity. possibly that is why, after years of deficiency of a clear symbol of the head of the state from the period of the Polish People's Republic, the fresh constitutional solutions attempted to escape the nullity or colorlessness of this body. In the head of the authors of constitutional solutions, regardless of who was to be the head of state – it turned out that the first 1 was elected Wojciech Jaruzelski – the most crucial dimension of the arbitration approach would be to formal regulatory activity in the political system. It is not hard to imagine that with specified a view there was a natural field of exercise of discretion, a derivative of the individual qualities of the President. Unless Jaruzelski abused his capabilities, Lech Wałęsa's presidency was characterised by a circumstantial disinvolvement and the request for wider powers of power.
President Over Divisions
It seems that Poles have the right to anticipate the president to execute political arbitration not only with respect to the most crucial institutions of the state, erstwhile for any reason they cease to function poorly. It is besides about involving the head of state in initiatives and attempts to resolve various social and systemic conflicts. That's not something constitutional law prohibits. However, in the case of various disputes and protests, the president's consequence can usually be very restrained, and the perfect commitment on 1 side of the conflict prevents a sine ira et studio (without anger and bias). There is an impression that successive presidents of Poland inactive feel like activists of their political formations, and even erstwhile they declare aparty, they service openly or secretly 1 orientation. This necessarily deprives them of their functions as objective, impartial arbitrators or mediators on a social level.
It is simply a paradox that, despite the large criticism of the current president, there is uncertainty that there will be a more suitable individual for this office among candidates who have the chance of winning the upcoming elections. According to any unpredictable electoral attitudes, it may not turn out that the next president in the public sense will be inferior to his current office.
None of the presidential candidates show the ability or predisposition of behaviorals to debate the most crucial issues for Polish identity (psychological complexes and taboos, prejudices towards neighbours, threats of cosmopolitanism and European and Euroatlantic integration). The deluded logic of electoral warfare dictates that they adopt dogmatic attitudes towards the points of view adopted for the campaign, without being open to another views and willingness to admit at least in part to their opponents. After all, it should be in the process of electoral combat that reconciliation talents and the ability to settle disputes in amicably, conciliatoryly. It is unusual that specified a request is not seen in their candidates preparing them for debates and speeches of election staffs.
After hard and negative experiences among Poles, there is simply a reasonably apparent electoral spectre: we want a president who will keep a distance from hot political disputes, against Polish-Polish “wars of tribes”. The President, who, alternatively of adding oil to the fire, will take conciliation initiatives, going beyond empty messages and pathetic tromtadrations about Polish uniqueness. Apart from rhetoric, no of the candidates warrant that this anticipation will be met.
One of the distinctions of an active arbitrator in political disputes should be the intellectual creativity of the presidential centre. To this end, it is essential to reorganise its administrative facilities. alternatively of a “house” composed of constantly harassed officials, a strong analytical and strategical advisory centre must be established. The president should anticipate reality with his proposals for change, rise the seriousness of the office with the wisdom of conceptualizing solutions to the most crucial problems and the accuracy of forecasts. It is an crucial link in political discourse.
Reaching to intellectual resources in the country and among Poles surviving abroad will not only strengthen the authority of power. It will besides aid the public to believe that, in keeping with Polish interests, the head of state wants to defend and implement these interests. In order to reflect respect for pluralism and different views, various collective bodies of an advisory and opinion nature should invitation persons outside the acolytes circle, frequently critical and polemic towards authoritative positions. Only then will the president meet social expectations as the most crucial political arbiter.
The president must usage all possible sources of cognition and inspiration. no of the candidates for this honorary function are omnipotent. Yes, this "monocratic" institution is required to supply reliable prescriptions for solving complex problems, but the President's wisdom should be the consequence of collective wisdom, cooperation with many expert communities. He should besides go along with humility and modesty, without imposing himself with his assurance or even his shoe.
In a military trap
The imperative of all electoral program in the time of the decomposition of global governance should be the concern for the integration of Polish society around vital existential interests. In the meantime, each of the most crucial candidates for a gigantic arms effort is not only the consequence of a false diagnosis of the global safety crisis. It is the consequence of a conscious conversion of manufacture to arms production, according to the interests of American and European plutucracy. possibly these are besides hard to address in pre-election discussions, as they should uncover the complexity of serving abroad interests? We would gotta put ourselves at hazard for uncomfortable questions, who truly is behind the NATO expansion to the east of the European continent and in whose interest it was to destruct Russia from energy contracts with the European Union countries, especially with Germany. The war in Ukraine is besides complex to explain its causes with a simple rhetorical procedure with an exclusive “Putin wine”. Hence the escape of candidates in slogans and thought abbreviations, reaching for demagoguery and manipulation.
The polling candidates, sharpening election rhetoric and attacking each other, in fact deepening the polarization of the society, exposing the hostile and pertrified duo of political patronage. In this pre-election tumult, there is truly no chance for independent candidates without organization identity. Therefore, the test of fairness and arbitration of the next president of Poland will be his courage to argue his own political camp, a network of “old friends” who contributed to his winning success. It will be crucial to have the reaction of a distanced arbitrator towards everyone, regardless of where the political scene comes from.
The president has no intervention power in the substance of ad hoc government. However, it can put public and confiscated questions to the Prime Minister, ministers and parliamentarians, as to why shameful practices are being continued, following the predecessors, for example harmful surveillance of citizens and organisations, mining detentions, financing of compromised IPNs, joining positions in parliament and government, expansion of government staff, regulation of media access, deficiency of control of the activities of peculiar services, political cast of positions in state-owned companies, etc. This would not only benefit the president, but, above all, the government would make its announcements and promises from the electoral campaign.
The problem of Polish politics is to “betone” in the legal and functional sense of the organization system. 2 of the political camps from 1 trunk and the demonstratively unbearable camps have been waged for more than 30 years by a devastating war that threatens to destruct the state. no of the candidates see the pressing problem of deep structural improvement of the state apparatus, reducing bureaucracy, creating modern mechanisms for recruiting political elites, not to mention the competitive recruitment of qualified and apolitical staff to civilian service. First of all, there is simply a request for a generation change in the political class, as it has been completely consumed.
The function of the President-arbitr is to defend the environment of the injured, injured, discriminated or excluded. On the side of the weaker or the handicapped, the head of state fulfills his “moral mission” (pater patriae), as well as through absorbing measures, contributes to reducing social tensions. The life partner of the head of state can play a crucial supporting function in these processes. It is worth returning to specified activity as the standards set Jolanta Kwasniewska.
Balance component
There are many manifestations of the fact that the Polish electorate advocates the presidency not so much of an arbitrationist character as opposed to a government camp. Due to the intense ideology of politics and the tendency of the coalition government with the Prime Minister to lead a "fighting democracy" or "repressive tolerance", there is simply a large probability of shifting votes after the first circular of elections, besides due to a specified spite, to a candidate who will weaken alternatively than strengthen the ruling coalition camp. In the broad sense of political arbitration, the head of state would be a solution not so illogical as it would be detrimental to the effectiveness of governance.
It should be noted, however, that the best solution would be to accept the pledge by the successful presidential candidate that he would become, after all the negative experiences of the presidency coming to an end, the guarantor of a well-functioning "state machinery" and protector of real national reconciliation, based on the search for rudimentary values and interests shared by the full national community.
The expected presidency brings with it opportunities to reconstruct the constitutional functions of the head of state, brought in fresh years to narrow, juridical designation of arbitration as a regulatory force in relations between the 3 types of authorities – execution, legislative and judicate. The current Constitution gives the president the chance to arrange a broad political dialog and in accordance with the rule of pluralism – to open up to different worldview environments – in order to balance competing agreements of strength and interests and divergent social expectations and demands. This may sound idealistic and naive, but in the face of the atrophy of many public institutions in Poland, the president distanced himself from regular arguments, may be the only public officer able to save what is inactive left of Poland in the face of increasing dependence on abroad factors.
Prof. Stanisław Bielen
Think Poland, No. 19-20 (11-18.05.201025)
