Meetings with citizens, but only selected ones. Power separated from people and questions. They cannot be asked, although they may be a vital issue for those asking them. PiS has been implementing this strategy throughout the entire campaign. Karina Kozłowska experienced this first hand.
Karina Kozłowska – the leader of AgroUnia – managed to enter the room where PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński was supposed to appear, although she was not invited. Like everyone else, she was checked by the relevant services and then sat among PiS supporters. As he claims, it aroused the organizers’ suspicions. This all happened moments before President Jarosław Kaczyński entered the room.
– I went inside and wanted to give President Kaczyński the book “Central Cash Scam”. This is about 20,000 people expropriated by CPK projects. I just wanted to give him the book. Three security guards spotted me and took me out. I have a recording. They beat me, twisted my arms and threw me out the door, says Karina Kozłowska.
It has been like this practically from the beginning of the campaign. Neither the president of the ruling party nor the prime minister – like most ministers – are organizing normal meetings with voters during this campaign, where they can be asked questions and raise even slightly uncomfortable issues. There has never been such a barrier between the authorities and the citizens in the history of the Polish election campaign.
Kaczyński chose Przysucha over the debate tvn24
Pretending to be a democracy?
Not only does the PiS president not take part in open meetings or election debates, but he has also not organized press conferences where he can be asked questions about his rule for a long time. – This is pretending that he is a democrat and that he wants to talk to people. He only likes closed spaces. Every person who is not his supporter is an enemy to him and that is what he is afraid of, says Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, an MP from the Civic Platform.
Przysucha is not the first place where the leader of AgroUnia and the protest against the construction of the CPK tried to talk to the most important PiS politicians – on behalf of the residents and injured farmers in connection with the construction. On September 16, during the “Thankful to the Polish Village” holiday, she was ignored by the government. In this campaign, Mateusz Morawiecki meets almost exclusively with those who are satisfied with his rule.
Main photo source: Fakty TVN