On Saturday, the presidential convention of Sławomir Mentzen, a Confederate candidate for the office of president of the Republic of Poland, was held in Bełchatów. The choice of place was not accidental – the city's president is Patrick Marjan, a Confederate activist. During the event, Mentzen focused on criticism of the government, the European Union and stressing the request to simplify the taxation system. The subject of the event was the mention to Donald Trump's words about "the revolution of common sense."
One of the strongest points of the speech was criticism of government policy towards Ukrainian refugees. According to Mentzen, they “pull queues to doctors and get reimbursed drugs”. He besides stated that "medical tourism was organized for our money."
Mentzen peculiarly stressed the request for taxation reform. He stated that Poland has the most complicated taxation strategy in Europe and promised it extremist simplification. He said:
- the elimination of inheritance, housing and cryptocurrency taxes,
- the abolition of taxes and pensions contributions ("Retired persons should be treated as students – no contributions and taxes"),
- housing relief, allowing the deduction of credit interest on taxes.
Mentzen powerfully criticized the Green Deal, convincing that it would cost Poland a trillion zlotys.
"Are we truly expected to pay PLN 250,000 to be colder in 20 years? I would like to invest 250 1000 PLN in Amber Gold" – he was ironic.
He besides stressed that Poland should invest in a atomic power station, which he felt should be established in Bełchatów to compensate for the possible effects of climate policy.
The Confederate candidate advocated a constitutional reset and adherence to the Constitutional Court's judgments.
“It cannot be that we choose whether a justice is simply a judge, whether the court is simply a court, whether the conviction is simply a judgment,” he said.
Mentzen criticized the announced Google investment in Poland, where $5 million is to be spent in training with AI within 5 years. He stressed that in Poland computing centres should be established, not the Centres for the Integration of Foreigners.
"We request 49 computing centers to keep up with the planet and the improvement of artificial intelligence," he argued.
The Confederate candidate stated that the debate on women's rights was "reducing women to 1 issue - abortion". He stressed that women "want to do more than just abortion", referring to their imagination of equality in business and politics.
Mentzen announced that as president he would usage veto law to block laws that complicate the taxation strategy or rise taxes.
"If I hear that they are working on something that I do not like, I will tell specified a minister right distant that he may not be working on it, due to the fact that I will not sign it," he said.
The Vice-President of the Confederation, MEP Anna Bryłka, pointed out that the EU has allocated over EUR 5 billion to lobbying on Green Deal.
"They themselves know that this is so cruel nonsense that you gotta pay billions to make anyone believe it," she said.
She added that "European Green Deal is an assassination on the freedom, property and safety of Poles" and assured that Mentzen would veto all the regulations imposed by Brussels, which hit the Polish economy.
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The Belchatov Convention was an chance for Mentzen to present himself as a presidential candidate who rejects EU climate policy, wants to simplify the taxation strategy and announces a tough policy towards the government. His rhetoric was powerfully anti-government and anti-EU, and his proposals – radical, especially in taxation and systemic issues. Mentzen is counting on him to enter the second circular of presidential elections, mobilising voters seeking alternatives to the current authorities.
According to the latest opinion24 poll for RMF FM, the situation in the presidential race in Poland has changed. Sławomir Mentzen, a Confederate candidate, recorded the highest increase in support, reaching 16.8% and reducing the distance to second place. Rafał Trzaskowski (KO) remains the leader with a score of 30.9%, while the second is Karol Nawrocki (PiS), who wins 21.7% of the vote.
Experts indicate that Mentzen's success is not accidental. Its dynamic growth in support is due to respective factors. The first is the weakening of the Law and Justice, so voters of the right-wing camp can search an alternate to Nawrocki. The second is the unification of the Confederate electorate after the departure of Grzegorz Braun – “baba out of the car, horses lighter” – as 1 of the Confederate politicians commented. Another is Mentzen's run strategy – avoiding controversial statements and a "disciplined" communicative as opposed to Korwin-Mikke's past missteps.
The PiS staff began to believe that Mentzen could be a real threat to Nawrocki. If the typical of the Confederacy exceeds the 20% threshold of support, the situation of the Law and Justice organization may become much more complicated. There is tension due to the fact that Karol Nawrocki does not attract as many voters as was assumed. 1 reason is the deficiency of designation – despite an intense media campaign, not all PiS voters know who Nawrocki is. The financial problems of the run are crucial – the PiS staff has only PLN 3-4 million for the campaign, while it needs a minimum of PLN 15-20 million. There is simply a deficiency of a coherent imagination – Nawrocki does not present a circumstantial program but for a fewer media appearances, which weakens its position.
In addition, Jarosław Kaczyński calls for contributions to the campaign, but the collection does not yield the expected results. In the PiS camp there were besides voices of discontent that Nawrocki's run was besides weak compared to the 1 led by Andrzej Duda in 2015.
