As expected, the organization Together announced that her presidential candidate would be Adrian Zandberg. What does that mean? Firstly, that the expressive, identity voter of the left will hear his voice clearly in the presidential debate – and the criticism of the government from these positions – and he will be able to deliver the vote in full aesthetic comfort. Secondly, it means dividing the left voice – which is not peculiarly large in Poland in 2025 – in the first circular and mostly weakening the left in both the government coalition and the political phase after the election.
If we wanted to illustrate the situation on the left that Zandberg's start is creating, we could draw a rework caricatures James Gillroy of 1805 portraying British Prime Minister William Pitt the younger and recently crowned emperor of the French Napoleons sitting other each another at the table and cutting the globe on the British and French spheres of influence as if they were sharing pudding or a part of meat.
In our version of this caricature alternatively of a large globe on the table would lie a small, mediocre part of left-wing cake – whether it can according to the health-promoting transmission of vegan tarta without sugar – whose larger part was already cut off by Trzaskowski, and the candidate of fresh Left Magdalena Biejat and the candidate Together cross cutlery as in a fencing duel in the fight for what is left.
When you said A...
On the another hand, it is hard to imagine that, after leaving the coalition left club, Together could afford to resign from his own candidate in the presidential election. erstwhile you say A, you gotta say B. Together by letting go of the presidential election, it would show that it is not a serious party, capable of being independent. If it had supported Biejat – until late its co-chair – it would have created the impression that it did not come out of the left club for real and that it was inactive in the gap between independency and cooperation with fresh Left.
Another question is whether the Together will now be able to collect the required 100 000 signatures to registry the candidate. In 2018, the organization was incapable to collect 100,000 signatures under the citizens' draft law on a 35-hour working week and had to retreat from an crucial initiative.
You can anticipate that present the organization will mobilize as much as possible, due to the fact that gathering or not signing is an existential issue for her. The failure to registry Zandberg's candidacy would be a complete embarrassment, would confirm to the public that Together is not an elementaryly serious party. Especially since collecting 100,000 signatures truly is not a barrier that can't be crossed. This has been successful in the past by highly exotic candidates, from Leszek Bubl, to Grzegorz Braun – in 2015, erstwhile he had a fraction of his current designation and scope – to Waldemar Witkowski from the Labour Union.
Going beyond the PO-PiS
How will Zandberg be positioned as a candidate? Judging by what? said on the occasion of announcing his candidacy on Saturday, mainly as a politician offering Poland an alternate to the chochole dance PO-PiS and leaving the clinic, in which Polish politics pushed the individual dispute of Kaczyński and Tusk without leaving any meaningful public debate.
Kaczyński and Tusk bid on who will put individual in jail – Zandberg thundered – while Poles are increasingly worried about their future and about whether "a pizza from a regular local pizza place will be a luxury again". PiS and PO have been exchanging for almost 20 years in power and at the same time They can't build a atomic power plant. and guarantee that Poland does not bring the active substances essential for the production of medicines essential to our wellness safety from China.
The politician He besides drew a global context: the planet is changing and the European Union is fleeing. In key areas for the future – specified as green transformation – Europe, which lies in the bonds of erroneous economical doctrines from the 1990s, it loses to the States and China. It needs the voice of Poland, able to introduce the Union in the 21st century.
Zandberg besides tried to hit populist, anti-elitarian tones. He attacked state-based politicians and the "Koryto premium" programme, which the current government replaced with the "Korytu plus" programme. Zandberg and the party's co-chairwoman, Krakow councillor Alexander Owec, stressed that Together they wanted to buy positions, but the organization did not quit due to the fact that its ideals are not for sale. Together, the candidate promised to "finish money in Polish politics", he besides attacked "corruption in the wellness service" – combining doctors' work in a public infirmary with private practice.
The question of effectiveness
The fatigue of the PiS and the PO is simply a real emotion, 1 can anticipate that by spring, erstwhile we go to elections, the negative moods centered around the Tusk government will only increase. A large part of the criticism of the Polish political class Zandberg presented was correct. However, there are any problems with his thought of candidacy.
The first is that we are already 2025, not 2015. In 2015, thanks to Zandberg's sensational performance in the tv debate, the proposal Together trusted 550 000 people, which at low turnout (50.92%) gave 3.62% support in the elections and a budget grant. present Zandberg, as organization leader for almost six years in parliament, must be assessed on a different basis than in 2015.
It is now impossible to not ask Zandberg what he has done since 2015 to bring us closer to the goals he is talking about. To build a atomic power plant by Poland, to invest wellness protection, industrial policy in the second 4th of the 21st century. In another words, apart from making the right diagnosis, can the leader together boast any effectiveness in implementing them?
The answer to this question is not peculiarly beneficial for the Together and candidate of this party. After leaving left club, the organization fundamentally returns to the same place as it was 10 years ago – to a group of “only righteous” in Polish politics, who alone hold the left flag and as the only ones see more than parties blinded by politics reduced to the Kaczyński-Tusk dispute.
One Key Difference
Zandberg's possible voters – especially those who hesitate to vote for him or Magdalena Biejat – will ask themselves if this is truly a good tactic.
Because there will be no real differences between Biejat and Zandberg in terms of values, the program, circumstantial solutions. The only, though fundamental difference between these 2 concerns the relation to the coalition government on October 15.
Biejat represents an option: with all the drawbacks this government is simply a value for Poland, the only chance to push our agenda and it is not worth putting a cross on it for now. Zandberg says: This skull will no longer smile, you gotta go your way, hoping that the fall of the coalition government on October 15 will someway not bring the PiS back to power. Or that even if it does, the next governments of the Law and Justice organization will “already” make a “Revolutionary Situation” that will give power together.
Most of the Polish voters who specify themselves as left are most likely closer to the fresh Left present than to Together. At the same time, frustration of the left electorate is real and any part of it just stays home. Another in the first circular will support Trzaskowski. Zandberg will most likely fight for support no more than 2-3 percent.
At the same time Biejat will teardrop off any of the support, the start of 2 left-wing candidates with an almost identical programme may besides discourage the vote on both candidates of a quarreled political family. The weaker the Biejat result, the weaker the Left will be in the government after the presidential election and the more the charges put forward by the Together that the Left in this government cannot change into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Voices of pissed-off PO-PiSem can gather individual else
On Saturday Zandberg did not attack Biejat at all, about Trzaskowski mentioned only in 1 conviction – pointing out to him that he was the contractor of Tusk's decision – he focused on Mentzen. He warned not to trust him as an alternate to the PO-PiS, resembling the utmost views of the Confederate candidate.
If Zandberg, alternatively of receiving Biejat's votes, successfully fought in the first circular for the general anti-system votes, disappointed by the full offer of political electorate, leaning towards the Confederate today, it would be the top benefit for the non-right organization from his candidacy.
The problem is that I don't see Zandberg win the fight for akin voters with Mentzen or – if this 1 takes off – Stanowski. Zandberg is simply a powerfully "Braminian" politician, a hyperintelligent image, and even his attempts to play left-wing populism on average are able to go beyond the boundaries of intelligent politics.
Polish "healthy sense" is, unfortunately, much closer to the populist right than the left. And in addition, to the right it will be beneficial for right-wing populists to the global political prosperity reinforced by Trump's second presidency. The promises of “Polish for millions of not millionaires” will most likely be little attractive than Mentzen’s promises that thanks to him, anyone with minimum resourcefulness will rise money for a home in the suburb and 2 cars and savings in cryptocurrency – in full everything worth nearly a million, which in Poland Mentzen will be millions. In the fatigue of the dispute between Tusk and Kaczyński, Zandberg is not likely to feed politically in these elections.
