Translated material
Marshal or Minister
Poland's ruling party is looking for a presidential candidate
There has never been such a vote in the history of Polish politics - about 46 thousand members of the ruling Civic Platform (CP) party will take part in the internal party elections of a presidential candidate via the Internet. Anyone who registered in the party's computer database before yesterday will receive a code to access a special GP page. Those who prefer traditional mail will be able to express their opinions by letter. The deadline for voting is March 26. The results on the eve of Easter, which this year falls on April 4 according to the Catholic and Orthodox calendar, will be announced by the chairman of the election commission specially appointed for this occasion - the deputy chairman of the GP, the mayor of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz.The decision to hold an all-party vote was made the day before at a meeting of the GP board. After the party leader, 52-year-old Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, publicly announced on January 28 his refusal to participate in the presidential elections at the end of the year, intrigue suddenly appeared in the election campaign. All polls indicated that Prime Minister Tusk was the favorite in the presidential race. He could defeat his eternal rival, the current president, 60-year-old Lech Kaczynski, in the first round. However, now the GP needs to find another popular politician in its ranks who could oppose the current president in the elections. The opposition party of his brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Law and Justice (PiS), plans to formally nominate Lech Kaczynski for April.
Two political heavyweights were found within the State Enterprise: the speaker of the lower house of parliament, Marshal of the Sejm, 57-year-old Bronislaw Komorowski, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, 46-year-old Radoslaw Sikorski. Public opinion is favorable towards them. If the elections had been held in February, then in the first round the fight between Komorowski and Lech Kaczynski would have ended in a draw - each would have received 21%. In a competition with Mr. Sikorsky, the current president would lose 4% (26% versus 22%). In a hypothetical second round, the winner is the candidate from the SOE - the Speaker of the Seimas would receive 63% of the votes, and the head of the Foreign Ministry - 66%
The SOE leadership does not express an open preference for one of the two candidates. Some attribute Komorowski's advantages to his longer party experience, recalling that Sikorski joined the State Party only in December 2007. The Speaker's predictability and ability to compromise speak in his favor. But the head of the Foreign Ministry is not diplomatically harsh - he compared the Nord Stream gas pipeline project with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and also called for the destruction of Stalin's gift standing in the center of Warsaw - the Palace of Culture and Science, reminiscent of Moscow skyscrapers. Pan Sikorski is reproached for his participation in the government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski - during the PiS government, he was Minister of Defense from September 2005 to February 2007.
Analysts note that as president, Pan Sikorski can declare himself as an independent politician and refuse to work in tandem with Prime Minister Tusk. Many people remember that Sikorsky’s wife is American Anne Applebaum, a political commentator for the Washington Post newspaper. Some believe that the American wife will become a burden for the Polish president in solving international problems, while others, on the contrary, see in this family union the key to improving relations between Poland and its strategic partner - the United States. Just in case, Sikorsky said that if his wife became first lady, she would stop writing to the newspaper.