Radosław Sikorski, the head of Polish diplomacy, promised at a meeting with the residents of Pruszków that if he becomes president, he will reduce the number of his advisers. He also declared cutting the budget of the Chancellery of the President by 20 percent. Earlier on Sunday, Sikorski had a meeting of Przysiek in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. – It was I who helped Donald Tusk return to Polish politics, and there were those who tried to prevent it – said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On November 22, the Civic Coalition will hold primaries to select the KO candidate in next year's presidential elections. Members will choose between the mayor of Warsaw and the deputy head of PO Rafał Trzaskowskiand the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski. The results will be announced the next day, i.e. Saturday. The candidate selected in the vote will present his program on December 7 in Silesia.
The presidential elections will be held next spring, probably in mid-May. Andrzej Duda ends his second and final term in August 2025.
Sikorski: sometimes you have to be a fox, and sometimes you have to be a lion
During Sunday's meeting, Sikorski asked KO members in Przysiek near Toruń to vote for him.
Radosław Sikorski during an open meeting with KO members in PrzysiekPAP/Tytus Żmijewski
– The voice of each country is as important as the voice of a minister or parliamentarian. It is up to you, in your conscience, to make this extremely important decision: who can withstand the pressure of the campaign, who is more brave, who is more hard-working, who really cares and who has a greater chance of winning these elections. Of course, Rafał (Trzaskowski – ed.) will work for me and I for Rafał with full commitment – depending on who you nominate as a candidate on Friday – said the minister.
In his opinion, the president's role is to be the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and he, as a former head of the Ministry of National Defense, has experience in this area.
– In diplomacy, sometimes you have to be a fox, and sometimes you have to be a lion – he said. He pointed out that he “knows how to engage in diplomacy”, but he was also able to tell the president to his face Ukraine about a clear Polish position regarding the necessary consent to the exhumation of the victims of the Volhynia massacre.
“I helped Donald Tusk”
– The president in Poland is not the head of the executive power, but if he has authority, he can have a major impact on Poland modernizing and completing the leap into modernity, Sikorski said. He assessed that Poland would be able to enter the European Union at the end of the decade G20.
– This is a group we can join if the Polish government does not seek conflict, will play as a team in the European Union, and the Polish president will have authority. I promise you that I will work for this. Donald Tusk needs a partner in Belvedere. It was I who helped Donald Tusk return to Polish politics. There were those who tried to prevent this. Decide who turned out to have better political instinct, said the minister.
Sikorski: safe abortion up to the 12th week must become law
In his speech, Sikorski argued that his advantage was combining liberal and conservative sensibilities. – However, this is European conservatism, where these matters are already resolved – he added.
– As we decided in PO, safe abortion up to the 12th week must become law. We also know that there is no consensus in the Sejm yet regarding civil partnerships. However, if a legislative initiative is needed and the president has such a prerogative, I believe that this is an issue that needs to be dealt with, he said.
The presidential election will be decided by “the ability to reach beyond one's own electorate”
In Sikorski's opinion, the presidential elections will be decided in the second round.
– What will decide is the ability to reach beyond one's own electorate – said the head of the Ministry of National Defense. – If the Left's candidate is not lucky, it seems to me that Rafał Trzaskowski, like me, will, apart from the votes of our community, also receive the votes of the Left's supporters. Rafał – because he is perceived as center-left, and I am perceived as strongly pro-European – explained Sikorski.
– The elections will be decided in the electorate to the right of us. KO has 35 percent support, and the Left has 8 percent, which gives 43, and we need 51. The research you could read in recent days shows that in the electorate to the right of us, I take twice as many votes as Rafał – he said. minister.
Sikorski: If I become president, I promise to cut the number of advisers
In the evening, Sikorski met with the residents of Pruszków.
He was asked, among other things, what the Presidential Palace would look like if he became president. – When it comes to the functioning of the presidency, first of all, I promise that I will cut the number of advisers by half, because I don't have to keep learning forever. And secondly, I will cut the office's budget by 20 percent, said the minister.
Sikorski repeated the promise he had already made at other meetings that if he became president, the Presidential Palace “would not be an asylum for criminals.” – I will not pardon any thief from the last eight years, I will not pardon those who used Pegasus to eavesdrop on journalists, judges and the opposition, and I will not pardon Antoni Macierewicz, and on the contrary, on the first day of his office, I will take away the Order of the White Eagle from him – noted the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Speaking about the role of first lady, Sikorski emphasized that his wife Anne Applebaum is Polish by choice. – She has learned our difficult language, she is a Pulitzer Prize winner and she would attract the intellectual cream of the crop from all over the West to Warsaw – emphasized the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Radosław Sikorski at a meeting in PruszkówPAP/Tomasz Gzell
Sikorski: I will not rest until the exhumations of the victims of the Volhynia massacre are unblocked
Sikorski was also asked, among other things, whether he had a plan to unblock the exhumation of the victims of the Volhynia massacre. – When it comes to Ukraine and Volhynia, I believe that I have formulated an argument to the Ukrainian authorities to which they have no answer, (…). I said: if you allowed the exhumation of a hundred thousand invaders, what problem do you have so that Poles, who were daughters and sons of this land, could also get a normal Christian burial? – emphasized the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to him, there is no answer to this in the canon of European values. – And this is not a reason for political bargaining – a grave for a plaque or something like that – added Sikorski.
He emphasized that he brought this argument not only to his Ukrainian counterpart, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but also to the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. – He was not happy when I told him this, but he listened, he heard, and thanks to this, we now have talks that will hopefully lead to a solution to this painful issue – said the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He added that he also asked the head of the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epiphanius, to take this matter to a higher level. – They adopted a joint letter that could also be signed by our Church, simply to remove it from the political domain – Sikorski emphasized.
Main photo source: PAP/Tomasz Gzell