“He turned to the empty chairs.” PiS manipulation regarding Trzaskowski's convention

On December 7, 2024, at the Civic Coalition convention in Gliwice, presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski began his election campaign at a meeting with PO members and its supporters. PreZero Arena Gliwice, where this event was organized, was packed. Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke first, and then Rafał Trzaskowski spoke for 52 minutes. He argued that “Poland needs acceleration” and the president cannot represent the interests of one party.

In his speech, Trzaskowski repeatedly repeated the slogan “all Poland forward.” He announced that the most important topics of his campaign will be: economy, security and equality. Showing a list of 139 cities prepared by the Polish Academy of Sciences that were losing their socio-economic functions due to the changes of the 1990s, he promised that he would go to such cities, county towns and the Polish countryside. “We will prepare a strategy on how to solve the problems of cities that are proud, want to develop and do not want young people to leave them,” he said. He also says that we need a “Poland of equal opportunities”. “For everyone, regardless of where they were born or raised, there must be exactly the same development prospects,” he pointed out. He also stated that: “We need economic patriotism, support for Polish companies, strengthening them, and a clear tax system. And that's what I promise you,” Trzaskowski said. He also mentioned solving the problem of farmers and the need to strengthen the Polish army and uniformed services. He declared, among others: liberalization of anti-abortion regulations and that one of the first acts he will sign as president will be the act on the Silesian language.

READ MORE: “All of Poland forward!” 52 minutes of Rafał Trzaskowski's speech

Shortly after the end of Trzaskowski's convention, Law and Justice politicians began to comment on it on social media – drawing attention to one fact. They published a photo of a television screen showing Trzaskowski with his back to the camera, but the visible chairs in front of him (and in fact: a row of chairs placed behind him, at the back of the stage) were empty. Opposition politicians reported that right after the PO candidate's speech, the people sitting there simply left the hall.

“Did you see that? The entire PO youth wing and the people who were sitting behind him right after his speech were so loud that Rafał, confused, turned to the empty chairs,” the PiS MEP wrote on the website X quarter of an hour before 2 p.m. Joachim Brudziński (the post generated 122,000 views; original spelling of all posts). “At the Trzaskowski Ball in Silesia, even the audience probably noticed the falseness and inappropriateness of this event…” – a post of this content was published a few minutes later by a PiS MP Rafał Bochenek (over 48 thousand views). “Not only people are turning away from PO, but even party activists. What happened here… support staff” – this is the entry of the presidential minister Blaise the Piouswhich included a fragment of the recording from the moment when Trzaskowski turns his back to the camera. “A perfect summary of this artificial campaign. Even the deported activists couldn't stand it” – a PiS MP joined in the campaign to comment on this scene Sebastian Kaleta. “It's beautiful. Rafał has such support… After all, if we had planned it ourselves, it wouldn't have turned out so well,” the PiS MP ironically commented on the same fragment of the recording. Radosław Fogiel (30k views).

Regardless of the comments of some Internet users who wrote that PiS politicians were falsely describing that moment of the convention, subsequent representatives of this party continued to spread the false message. Elżbieta Witekretweeting Fogel's post, she wrote: “This picture says it all. An embarrassing end to Trzaskowski's brilliant Convention. I guess the staff didn't quite do a good job, right?” “But me? To the empty chairs?” – he mocked Dominik Tarczyński (over 58 thousand views). Entries on this subject were also published by, among others: Marcin Horała, Michał Moskal (he compared the frame with empty chairs in front of Trzaskowski with a photo of a full room at the meeting with Nawrocki); These entries were spread by the official PiS profile, as well as anonymous accounts known for supporting PiS.

In fact, the situation was quite the opposite, and PiS politicians used the camera angle that suited them to spread manipulation.

In the Gliwice arena, the stage for speakers had a square shape, protruding diagonally into the middle, and the audience filled all the seats on the four sides of the stage. But behind the speaker, there was an additional podium with four rows of spectators – occupied by special guests, many wearing white T-shirts with the slogan “All Poland Forward”.

The recording of Trzaskowski's speech shows that when he finishes and says “Thank you very much”, everyone in the hall claps and gets up from their seats. However, people sitting in the rows behind him quickly get up and move to the main stage – because then the host invites “the entire support committee” to the stage. The TV camera showed the moment when Trzaskowski – while saying goodbye and thanking the entire audience – also turned back when the people sitting there were already coming down to the stage, so the chairs were empty.

These people approached Trzaskowski, he greeted them, and then – standing in front of them – he approached the podium again. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is my support committee. These are people I meet all over Poland. These are teachers; miners; these are all those who fight for the rights of people with disabilities; these are those who work in trade ; our entrepreneurs; these are the heroes of everyday life. This is my electoral team. And each of you will be in my electoral team! – he concluded. This moment can be seen in the coverage of the convention on the PO account on YouTube – (time: 1:27:50), when Trzaskowski starts chanting “we will win!”.

The message that “activists have been imprisoned [PO] they couldn't stand it” and “they went away immediately after his speech”, so it is untrue.