Michal Kolanko
16-02-2023, last update 16-02-2023 12:34
As the election campaign unfolds, more and more questions are asked about the political future of the president of Warsaw.
author: Marian Zubrzycki
source: Fotorzepa
Will Rafał Trzaskowski replace Bankowy Square with Aleje Ujazdowskie this fall, and the seat of the President of Warsaw with the seat of the Prime Minister? For several months, there have been speculations from time to time that the leader of PO Donald Tusk may decide to make such a move and offer Trzaskowski such a new role. Especially since unofficial information indicates that relations between politicians are much better, the best sign of which is that Sławomir Nitras, a close associate of the Mayor of Warsaw, recently became the coordinator of the election monitoring project on behalf of the KO.
– This is a signal for Rafał and also for the entire local government environment, showing that “all hands are on board” in this campaign – convinces one of our well-informed interlocutors from KO in an interview with “Życie Regionów”. We also ask in the PO whether any options are excluded in practice. “Everything is on the table now. No final decisions have been made yet, according to our informant.
According to our information, in practice the issue of the role that Trzaskowski is to play in the future will be settled in the next few months – by mid-2023, the PO in practice started (recently announced at a closed meeting by the KO Donald Tusk club) the process of collecting and preparation of electoral lists. But the decision related to the role for Trzaskowski is of course a strategic issue, which is not only related to running for the Sejm or not, but to the entire concept of the autumn election campaign. The process of preparing the electoral lists is expected to take several weeks, but in practice it will end in a few months, when the election campaign officially starts. This is the framework of this “window of opportunity” for Trzaskowski. The PO has already started a new phase of the country tour, in which politicians from the PO and its allies will visit successive provinces every week. This phase will end before the holidays.
For Trzaskowski, running for the Sejm – an opinion that can be found most often in the PO – makes political sense only if it is followed by the aforementioned proposal regarding the prime minister’s portfolio. Suggestions that Tusk should bet on the president of Warsaw come from many sides. “It would be easy for this broad opposition to swallow. And I think it’s a sensible generational change – former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski spoke about the situation in which Trzaskowski is a candidate for prime minister last Friday on Radio ZET.
Last year, Donald Tusk announced that the PO campaign would be largely led by young politicians, but so far the PO campaign team has not been presented, although intensive conceptual work on the campaign is to continue.
PiS is watching the PO’s movements very closely. Also in terms of the potential start of the mayor of Warsaw in the autumn elections. One of our interlocutors from Nowogrodzka admitted that he does not underestimate the political potential of such a move, because Trzaskowski – as our interlocutor claims – does not have, for example, such a negative image as the leader of PO Donald Tusk. And it could introduce a new dynamic.
A separate issue from the potential start of Rafał Trzaskowski is cooperation with Ruch Samorządowe Tak! For Poland, whose leader is the president of Sopot, Jacek Karnowski. Our conversations show that many PO politicians are quite cool about this idea. – Local government officials declare a lot, but ultimately these declarations do not translate into concrete results – said a politician close to the PO authorities in December. both in the Senate pact and, potentially, in the elections to the Sejm.
In recent days, the atmosphere around the local government movement has additionally begun to thicken, after “Rzeczpospolita” revealed a poll commissioned by Tak! For Poland, which showed that local government officials can count on nearly 11 percent of support. This poll was not well received – euphemistically to put it in PO. But local government officials both officially and unofficially emphasize that they want to stand as candidates together with other opposition groups, and not against them. This game puts Trzaskowski himself in a difficult situation, who is both an important figure in Yes! For Poland and and vice president of the
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