Parliamentary elections 2023. Non-party local government officials are running for the Sejm and Senate, they are cooperating with PiS in Lower Silesia. Who are they, what are their demands?

Non-partisan local government officials in the coming years elections parliamentary committees will be – next to the “big five”, i.e PiS, Civic Coalition, Third Way, Left and Confederation – another nationwide committee. They announced it at a press conference on September 6 in Karpacz.

As they write on their website, they are “a social movement that was created before the local elections in 2014.” At that time, they opposed the alliance of the then president of Wrocław, Rafał Dutkiewicz, with Platformma Obywatelska.

On their website they also remind us of their cooperation with Paweł Kukiz. “One of the provincial councilors on behalf of the Non-Party Local Government Council was Paweł Kukiz, who ran in the 2015 elections for the President of the Republic of Poland. Thanks to the involvement of many communities and the support of people from all over the country, he achieved an excellent result – over 20 percent of the votes. The success of the Non-Party councilor gave us basis for building structures throughout the country,” we read.

“In 2018, the Non-partisan Local Government Workers, strengthened by cooperation with the Lower Silesian Local Government Movement, headed by Marshal Cezary Przybylski, took part in the local government elections as a nationwide committee. Under a common banner, we gathered local government officials from various regions of the country, including the Lower Silesian Non-Party Local Government Workers, the Masovian Local Government Community, Nonpartisan Western Pomerania and Lepsze Lubuskie” – they describe their history.

They also write that as a result of the local government elections in 2018, the Nonpartisan Local Government Workers “became the fourth force in Poland.” “Although we did not manage to issue lists in all districts, we achieved a result of 5.3% nationwide. We introduced 15 councilors to provincial assemblies,” they remind.

It was after the 2018 elections that the Non-Party Local Government Workers entered into a local coalition with PiS in Lower Silesia. “Gazeta Wyborcza”, citing e-mails that were leaked from the minister’s private mailbox Michał Dworczyk, then head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, describes the backstage of those negotiations. He recalls the content of Dworczyk’s email from November 2018, when the fate of the coalition was at stake, to the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki: “On Monday there will be the first draft of the coalition agreement. I will send it to you immediately. Today, after further talks, the Lower Silesian package has become more bulky, but at least there are specifics. Raczyński and Przybylski would like to talk to you on Tuesday after the council of ministers.”

The matter of negotiations regarding coalition in Lower Silesia we also described it on tvn24.pl.

The Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Cezary Przybylski, one of the leaders of the Non-Party Local Government Workers, announced on September 6 at a press conference in Karpacz that they would issue lists for the Sejm elections in all 41 districts.

– We will also field candidates for senators. We want to give Poles hope for a normal Poland, a Poland where you can live peacefully, cooperate and create beautiful things, said Przybylski.

Robert Raczyński, the president of Lubin and one of the founders of the Non-Party Local Government Workers, said that “we managed to convince thousands of people to participate in the Non-Party Local Government Movement movement.” – The result of these talks, which have been ongoing over the last few years, has been the collection of over 300,000 signatures. Poles want us to be present in politics, said Raczyński. He added that Nonpartisan Local Government People are running in the elections to “change what is simple, and no one wants to do it.”

“We conducted thousands – yes, thousands of conversations, convincing thousands of people to participate in the Nonpartisan Local Government movement. The result of these conversations is the collection of over 350,000 signatures,” Raczyński wrote on social media.

BS’s election demands include “free, healthy meals for children in schools”, the introduction of “zero PIT for all citizens”, free public and regional transport and an increase in spending on child psychiatry.

One of the leaders of the Non-Party Local Governments are the previously mentioned Robert Raczyński and Cezary Przybylski, i.e. local government officials associated with Lower Silesia. This region of Poland is considered the political home of the organization.

This is also reflected in the candidates who are on the electoral lists in various districts. “Gazeta Wyborcza”, which analyzed the distribution of BS candidates on the electoral map of Poland, wrote that “the Nonpartisan party landed officials from Lower Silesia almost all over Poland, stuffing presidents, councilors, directors and politicians’ families as candidates.”

He describes this “landing” using specific examples – for example, in district no. 9 in Łódź, out of 19 candidates on the list, 12 are – as “GW” writes – people associated with Lower Silesia, mainly Wrocław and Lubin.

The daily also analyzes the names of specific candidates. He mentions Damian Stawikowski, president of Koleje Dolnośląskie, former secretary of Lubin and deputy mayor of Lubin, who opens the list of Non-Party Local Government Members in Szczecin. As another example, he mentions Piotr Koszarek, deputy director of the Lower Silesian office of Marshal Cezary Przybylski, who is “number one” of the Non-Party Local Government Workers on the list in Białystok.

Koszalin councilor Błażej Papiernik commented on social media about the shape of the electoral list of Non-Party Local Government Workers in the Koszalin district. “The entire list of paratroopers from Lower Silesia in Western Pomerania. It’s just shame and mockery,” he wrote and posted a photo of the list. In the “place of residence” column, the names of most candidates include cities and towns in Lower Silesia.

“Similarly in the Bydgoszcz district. Almost the entire list of paratroopers” – wrote Kamil Heyka, head of the Nowoczesna region in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, under his post.

However, KO MP Michał Szczerba pointed out that the “number one” on the list of Non-Party Local Government Officials in Opole is Maciej Bluj, former vice-president of Wrocław.

“Morawiecki’s man, the voivode’s plenipotentiary for the temporary hospital in Wrocław – deciding on tens of millions without power of attorney or remuneration – is the candidate of the ‘Free Local Government’. Do you already know what this list is! PiS encore! Was Dworczyk preparing?” – he commented.

At the end of June, we described in tvn24.pl the story of the dispute regarding the name “Yes! for Poland”. We informed then that the Nonpartisan Local Government People were registering a political party with the name “Yes! for Poland”, which is exactly the same as the Local Government Movement composed of the presidents of the largest Polish cities, which supports the opposition. However, in August, as “Wyborcza” wrote, the District Court in Wrocław suspended the registration of this political party.

Dispute over the name “Yes! For Poland”. “Theft” versus “to steal something, it must be someone else’s”

“The cowardly attempt to steal our name was failed by the dyed-in-the-wool local government officials, PiS allies,” said the mayor of Sopot, Jacek Karnowski, after the court’s decision, quoted by “Wyborcza”.