By Stanley Bill and Maria Wilczek
Notes from Poland has reached out to the four leading presidential candidates to get their views on the key issues ahead of this weekend’s election.
In the second part of this series, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, leader of the Polish People’s Party (PSL), answers our questions on his prospects and programme, his past mistakes, foreign affairs, defence, the controversy over LGBT rights, the role of the Catholic church, and PiS’s overhaul of the judiciary.
Last week, we interviewed presidential candidate Szymon Hołownia.
Stanley Bill and Maria Wilczek: Many polls suggest that your chances of beating President Duda in a run-off would be better than those of the leading opposition candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski (Civic Coalition – KO). But you are far behind Trzaskowski in the race to get there. Can you explain this contradiction?
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz: The majority of the Polish electorate is centrist, or right of centre. Rafał Trzaskowski is on the left wing of Civic Platform. He is able to mobilise his core voters (which is why he is taking votes from Mr Biedroń, the Left candidate), but he does not appeal to the people who voted for Andrzej Duda in 2015, to Mr Bosak’s supporters or to many traditional voters of PSL. That is why most opinion polls have suggested that only I have a chance of beating President Duda in the second round. The matter will be resolved not by opinion polls, but by voters on 28 June.
PSL is traditionally a rural, agrarian party, but has recently been expanding its electorate and increasing its urban voter base. Where do you now fit into Poland’s political or ideological scene? What makes you different from the other parties and presidential candidates?
PSL has been transformed since 2015. We are now part of the Polish Coalition (Koalicja Polska) with Kukiz’15, the Union of European Democrats, the Conservatives of Marek Biernacki, various regional politicians, associations of entrepreneurs, etc. As the Polish Coalition we had four MPs elected in big cities (Gdynia, Kraków, Warsaw, Wrocław). I have been endorsed in the presidential elections by the mayors of Kraków, Rzeszów, Szczecin and Zielona Góra. We appeal to a wide range of professional, business and academic circles. We are the only centre-right, traditional, but innovative party. Our ecological programme equals or sometimes exceeds that of the Green Party. Our business plans are supported by liberal conservatives, both academics and practitioners. We have the best ideas for reforming the health sector, which I know from firsthand experience as a medical doctor. We believe in decentralisation and giving real power to the regions, as the local government reform of 1990 is universally perceived as the most successful of Polish reforms.
I am the only presidential candidate who is actually the leader of his party. I have no bosses above me, but have many supporters inside the parliament (30 MPs and three senators), and the largest party membership in Poland (over 120,000 members).
You recently wrote that you’ve learned from the mistakes of the PO-PSL government of 2007-2015, in which you were a minister under Donald Tusk. What were those mistakes? Do you regret your support of the raising of the retirement age, which the Law and Justice (PiS) party has since reversed?
I have said publicly a number of times that this was a political mistake, as we did not manage to explain to the voters why we were doing it and did not get their backing for that idea. We paid a price and learnt our lesson.
Poland’s weak semi-presidential system means that presidents have limited power. You have previously said that you would like to strengthen the president’s office. How do you envisage these changes?
I suggest that any presidential initiative submitted to the Sejm [the lower house of the Polish parliament] should be voted on within 14 days. I would appoint one representative of each political party represented in the Sejm to serve in my chancellery to be closer to the law-making process. I would open 49 regional offices of the chancellery to be closer to the voters. I would try to introduce a law giving the president veto power over the state budget. I would like the Senate [the upper house of the Polish parliament] to be a chamber consisting of representatives of the regional government.
The most important presidential power is the veto, which as president would allow you to block government legislation. PiS argues that an opposition president would result in legislative gridlock. In which areas do you believe you could cooperate with PiS to pass laws?
The Polish Coalition voted with the PiS government when the proposed new laws made sense. We did not object to their every proposal, and as president, I will not automatically veto everything coming out of the Sejm and the Senate. I would certainly not sign any legislation that was produced in haste, was sloppy, inconsistent, contrary to already existing laws or unconstitutional. I would expect new legislation to be prepared with due care.
One of the main areas of presidential responsibility is foreign policy. How should Poland be positioning itself in the increasingly complex relations between Europe, the US and a rising China?
Poland is a member state of the EU, one of the largest ones, and should play a key role in formulating policy within the European Union. We should be close to all major members of the EU, replacing the United Kingdom at the top five table. We should also forge a strong alliance with our natural allies: Sweden, the V4 countries [Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia] and the Baltic states. Our policy towards other nations, including China and Russia, should be part of an EU-wide policy. We have a close bilateral relationship with the USA, but our friendship and influence will grow if we are perceived by the Americans to be a powerful member of the EU. After the departure of the UK, Poland will probably instinctively be the largest strongly pro-American member of the EU, and we should be a loyal friend to both.
Another key domain of presidential responsibility is defence. Would you describe President Duda’s efforts to intensify defence cooperation with the US as a success? Does Poland have any real alternative to this approach?
We are a loyal member of the NATO alliance, which provides security guarantees to all its members. I strongly support the US involvement in Europe through their leadership in NATO. Unity gives us strength. I would like to see an increased presence of US troops in Europe, including in Poland. Any unilateral movements done without consultation with other members of NATO are divisive and do not increase Poland’s or Europe’s security.
The question of LGBT rights remains controversial in Poland, and has recently been injected into the election campaign by President Duda. Do you, like the president, believe that “LGBT ideology” is a threat to Poland? You have previously called for a referendum on same-sex civil partnerships. If a broader referendum were held and the public voted in favour of same-sex marriage, would you sign such a law?
I see people who are LGBT in Poland – they are human beings, and not an “ideology”, and I do not perceive them as a threat to this country. Same-sex marriages are not allowed by the Constitution.* No referendum result, even if accepted by the Sejm, can be signed into law without changing the Constitution first.
* Poland’s Constitution states that “Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland”. Many interpret this article as a limitation on same-sex marriage. However, some constitutional experts and even a court ruling have rejected this assumption.
Like most Poles, you identify as a Roman Catholic. But do you feel that religion and the church have come to play too great a role in Polish politics?
Religion has a great role to play in society, but not in politics. We have to move politics out of the Polish churches.
You have been openly critical of the current government’s overhaul of the judicial system. As president, what concrete steps would you take to rectify the current situation?
I fully support the proposals of Paweł Kukiz to introduce general elections to appoint the Commissioner for Human Rights, Prosecutor General and members of the National Council of the Judiciary. I also support the introduction of justices of the peace, which would speed up judicial procedures. The so-called reforms of PiS resulted in the subjugation of judges to the executive, total control of the prosecutors by the Minister of Justice, and paralysis of the courts. Poland is being accused by the EU and its highest court, the European Court of Justice, of destroying the tripartite division of power. As president, I will call a round table meeting to bring together all sides of Poland’s rule of law dispute. We have to bring the current impasse to an end.
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz answered questions submitted remotely by Stanley Bill and Maria Wilczek.
Main image credit: Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz/Twitter
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
