“Ole Olek” and disco polo as a political vehicle

The KWAK bus (from the Aleksandra Kwasniewski Election Committee) was 1 of the keys to triumph in the 1995 presidential election. Under reflection in Bill Clinton's run in the summertime of 1992, KWAK drove between June and October 1995 25,000 kilometres, visiting in 2 stages about 150 localities (originally even 250).

The tour was designed primarily to mobilise a kind, neutral or mostly discouraged to electorate policy. conventional bastions of the Catholic-national right (such as the Nowo Sądecki state or Kaszuba) were bypassed, for this, especially at the beginning, the village where the Alliance gained good results in 1993, and Kwasniewski's arrival could become an crucial event. In large cities, however, its electorate was comparatively constant, and hence the anticipation of mobilizing additional, smaller ones.

Kwasniewski's intensive tour contrasted with the distance of Wałęsa, erstwhile a folk stand, against the crowds on the street; the president traveled very little, and his staff feared spontaneous rallies. However, many voters have read this as an expression of arrogance; behold, Wales is so convinced of his title to re-election that he does not want to bother to convince the citizens personally.

These meetings were filmed and photographed for the usage of later election materials, but besides for the recording of incidents, forces of their own tv crew, including the editor of the "TV Journal" from the times of the Polish People's Republic, Grzegorz Wozniak, as well as the well-known photographer PAP, Damaz Kwiatkowski. The turnout was added due to the fact that in many towns Kwasniewski was the only candidate to visit them – in 13 1000 Parczev in Lublin there came 3,000 people, in akin size Lubaczów or Przeworsk – half a 1000 each.

People blame Olek for yielding to the Church

The squad came by bus (sufficient luxury for these times with Mercedes), sometimes besides a car cavalcade, greeted by the authorities or leaders of local SLD structures (which sometimes turned out to be one), and the candidate greeted the residents, usually friendly (and unkind Welsh). He squeezed hands, accepted flowers, gave autographs, and typed dedications on books and flyers, sometimes posing for a photo, although much little than it would be in the age of smartphones.

They besides distributed calendars and timetables of lessons with a image of the candidate, and conducting local discos – records and cassettes with an election hit (about which in a moment). Kwasniewski usually besides visited local radio broadcasts, sometimes respective in 1 city and seed cable televisions, much more curious in his presence than national media reporters.

Talks on the pavement, but besides in filled halls were usually about respective recurring threads – residents of tiny centres attacked Wałęsa (actually for everything, blaming him for sins and harm to transformation, from unemployment to low retirement), but also, to any surprise of the staff, the Catholic Church.

In the late spring in the Constitutional Commission, Kwasniewski got along unofficially with Bishop Tadeusz Pieronek on the issue of the evidence of the neutrality of the worldview of the state and then clearly restrained the anti-clerical message. However, the Hierarchs withdrew from the arrangements and continued to condemn post-communists for constitutional nihilism, but the audience of election myths demanded that the Church's increasing influence be stopped.

As Danuta Waniak recalls, “the voters came to Olek to yell at us... for the overly yielding position of the state power towards the Catholic Church’s actions.” erstwhile there was a rumor in June that in the Parliament in the absence of many SLD Members the right-wing Members wanted to put the concordat substance to the vote, the full squad moved to Warsaw, stating that "if the concordat passes in parliament, we can end this run at this point."

So Kwaśniewski, who has been alternatively celebrated for his conciliative attitude towards the Church so far, sharpened the course – in an interview with the Italian weekly “La Stampa”, reprinted in “The Tribune”, said that the Church alienated the faithful with aggressive and fanatical behaviour and that in Poland it acts as a close political party.

Classic populist frame

Waniak besides mentions that, contrary to expectations, comparatively small was asked, for example, about housing (which had ceased to be a good, formally at least, guaranteed by the state, so the SLD candidate would be a natural candidate for the claim in this case), but very frequently about jobs, the threat of privatisation of wellness care services or the pay of teachers. Kwasniewski, well prepared by locals and Janik, usually managed smoothly, and in cases of apparent incompetence he played the function of a afraid questioner: the farmer in the municipality close Wolsztyn asked for, for example, a return from the art of pig living, and the host of nuances of livestock management patiently explained to him.

There were besides situations, despite the kindness of the surroundings, little comfortable. And so, for example, in Trzciana, Tarnów Voivodeship, at the request of a local MP, the squad stopped for a gathering at a fire station, on Saturday late afternoon. Most of the gathered came in intoxicated. They were not Kwasniewski's enemy, but the communication did not stick until yet 1 of them turned to the candidate: Listen, young man, we will vote for you here, no, but 1 thing you gotta promise us. You're gonna fuck all the thieves in Rzeszów, right? Having asked about the specifics, Kwasniewski heard that it was about “the full band” with the MP who organized this myth).

In principle, however, Kwasniewski had a successful contact with his constituents, not only in the municipality of Siedlec in the west of Poland, where he won the election... already in the first round, which he did not hesitate to boast about the mayor who greeted him. The quintessence of his message to the audience was a fragment of an appearance from the phase in the barred sports hall in Sosnowiec, the conventional bastion of the left:

“Media does not support me, the Church has repeatedly said that anything but me, even peculiar initiatives have been created to discourage me, there are besides Warsaw salons, which do everything possible for me not to win ... I want to choose people. People want to choose me!’

It was a classical populist framework – the Church (in the 1990s the apparent part of the establishment), the media and salons are a typical catalog of opponents of the actual people – only that with a pragmatic discourse of solving problems through dialog and emploi of “its European”. The tan, well tailored jackets and sometimes besides smooth speech could, of course, have caused the effect of distinction, and thus alienated the candidate from the electorate, especially the little educated and derived from the alleged Poland B. Especially since despite thousands of handshakes, only the promotion of possible voters had an chance to contact directly. It is Kwasniewski – in the hall and on the street in his component – who almost always gained.

They understood language and speech free from sedition, the ideology of meritocracy combined with concern for the weaker, the call for agreement to all people of good will – all of this could not have been adequate to overcome the distrust of the people transformed by Warsaw and Washington. The key to breaking that barrier must have been aesthetics. Kwasniewski had to show that although the European himself, he would be his people to the dream Europe, at the same time without disdain.

Future and Style

And in the mid-1990s, there was no more eloquent ritual of an intelligent exit to the people than to swing publically into disco polo rhythm. Music that nobody seems to perceive to was de facto banned on public tv and radio stations. In addition to the festival of the alleged sidewalk song in 1991, which TVP treated as a cabaret, the creators of this genre – frequently from folk classes and usually playing for them – acted in performance and cassette circulation. It was almost underground, though it was hard to call it niche – the contributions of cassettes of the most popular bands from that time, specified as Boys, Voyager or Amadeo wholesalers ordered for tons alternatively than for plays.

At the same time, clogging the nose (or actually the ears) to mention this musical genre was an intelligent glider of that time – a man who aspires was recognized after he despises. Another thing is that intelligent politicians thus besides despised their own voters, due to the fact that even in the electorate of the Union of Freedom (!) more than 60% of respondents to the 1996 CBOS survey declared that they liked this genre of music.

The thought of utilizing disco polo Tadeusz Piwowar, a friend of Kwasniewski, was reported to have fallen as a political vehicle, later vice president of Jolanta Kwasniewska's charity council. The staff ordered the track from Top 1 – the stars of the genre, but then, as their vocalist himself said, in a downward trend. For this reason they were mainly persuaded to make a political piece, and yet convinced by the staff envoy, young political scientist Wojciech Szewko.

Three Polish musicians to a rapper company with Ghana Daniel Osafo Oware were to compose and execute a run anthem. The order indicated that it was to be a hit and at the same time contain a message about "chosen future". It came out well above expectations – and so the already well-known band gained its biggest hit in the career, and Kwasniewski's iconic election song, in fact the only 1 that is remembered from all the run of the IIIrd Polish Republic.

It was hard to get a more understandable message: "Lechu's appointments are already ending with his/almost time to change him/Although there are many who want/I know that it will be him/Ole Olek, win, Ole Ole Olek, for president only you/Ole Olek, today, Ole Olek/ let's choose the future and style/President is, individual like you/politician what, has real dreams/ and the program so, surely you/ guide the country through day reforms". Then rap in the Ghanaian language of twi, or multi-kulti in the household version and again chorus.

The words, as Danuta Waniak remembered, were hard to hear from the cassette on a portable player, but the music could "eat" – the chief of staff for the case suppressed the intelligent disgust and gave the green light. A clip for the song was recorded during the primary in September, at the very end of the summer, with household survivors, mainly mothers with tiny children and youth cheering up to the rhythm of the hit. On it we see national images bordering on unleavenedness, but besides the professionalism of production and the naturalness of the candidate who claps and sways a light-haired girl on his hand makes it look like he's having a truly good time.

9 percent and essential Polsat

With specified a part it was impossible to hit the time better – here, six weeks before the first circular of elections, the most popular program with disco polo music, i.e. on Sunday, Polish "Disco relax" launched a list of hits. A week before the first round, the song, which was simply an election clip, came as a novelty to number 9 (pronounced as “a song very on time, due to the fact that it was already next week's election!”), and on 5 November there was a second song (although due to the voter's silence this song was not aired, immediately after Shazzie in the 3rd place the winner, Bohdan Smolenia, was released). On Sunday between the election rounds – and at the same time on the day of the legendary debate with Lech Wałęsa – it fell to 5th place, in order to advance again to 3rd on Day II.

However, happiness, as usual, had to be helped. The entry of the song on the list was not rather spontaneous, due to the fact that Polsat is simply a commercial station. As the author of the book writes No one's listening. Disco-polo reports“ Disco Relax’s producers did not get into the content or message due to the fact that it was where they paid for music videos. The description paid certain rates and promoted its teams. Kwasniewski's staff knew precisely what to do. They knew the power of the program and knew erstwhile to air – not besides soon, nor besides late, precisely erstwhile it was on the top of the election. Everything was perfectly calculated.”

Given the channels of disco polo music distribution at the time, the entry on the "Disco relax" list was crucial. Without this, in the absence of the entry of this genre to another electronic media than Polsat, the "pantoflowy post" would trigger a wave of popularity of the song only after voting in the second round.

The direct impact of the Top 1 hit on the result of the election is, of course, hard to estimate. The author of the report, recalls the words of Paweł Kucharski, the band's lead singer, whose Kwasniewski staff were to inform that "thanks to the election song of the future president's rating, 9 percent points increase".

Such a consequence of music videos or performances in concerts in a fewer weeks seems unlikely. On the basis of CBOS' research, however, it can be assumed that the track played its role: while among those declaring aversion to the genre, the results of voting for Wałęsa and Kwasniewski were practically precisely the same as in the full election distribution, while among the amateurs disco-polo Kwasniewski's advantage was 62 to 34.

It is most likely that Kwasniewski's performance on stage, election clip and hit hit millions of audiences helped to perpetuate his image of the man of the close people, despite the higher (than Lech Wałęsa) education and intelligence, especially in tv debates, the way of praise.

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Book fragment Aleksander Kwasniewski. Political Biography (Tom 1, 1954-1995), which appeared in the Publishing home of Political Critics.