Tusk's government bad but nothing better on the horizon?
Bogumił Kolmasiak, translation:AG Tuesday, 29 December 2009 03:01
Tusk's government needs alternates
The situation when over 80% of Poles do not accept the government and over a half of this group declares voting on governing party at the same time is unnatural. If in the near future a political offer, which would be an alternative (or support) for Tusk's team, do not clarify, a danger of unusually low turnout in 2011's parliamentary elections will arise. Who can create such an alternative? There are many candidates.
Kaczynskis once again?
Constantly, according to all of opinion polls, the biggest opositive party is Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość). Also a president, being associated with Law and Justice, will rather escape from disgrace and enter the second round of elections. All the more, his ratings are improving, what is shown by latest opinion poll carried out amongst Polls, asking "Who would you invite to Christmas Eve Supper". Nevertheless, LaJ has two disadvantages that exclude it from the battle for the electorate of Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska). For CP voters LaJ governing appears as a time of bringing Lepper and Giertych to power, lowering democratic standards and introducing elements of police state. LaJ is still trying to find a gateway from this image. A successful attempt was to place emphasis on economy matters and to present three substantially strong women as "Kaczynski's Angels". Not a big deal, Ziobro, seen as aggressive and substantially-week politician that gathers only provincial electorate, is also present in media at the same time anyway. Second LaJ's problem is that they're not able to function in coalition. An alliance with post-communists in media (forgivable for LaJ's electorate suffering from dichotomy we-they) is one thing, creating a coalition in government is something utterly different .
Democratic Left Alliance (SLD): choose the past!
The new image of DLA is outdated. It refers to Leszek Miller's golden age when DLA used to gain 40% in elections. Leading politicians from that times, Miller and Oleksy, seem to be back in charge, furthermore the ones who have been negotiating a coalition in media are Kwiatkowski and Czarzasty. Grzegorz Napieralski forgets that those stars of DLA not only were responsible for its spectacular triumph (although this could be the reason of Buzek's government poor PR), but also for its failure and drop in ratings. At that time young Wojciech Olejniczak apologizing for older colleagues' mistakes managed to save 10% of votes and keep party in parliament . The hardest DLA electorate, mentally stuck in People's Republic of Poland, lost its main propaganda tool. "The Tribune" has been doing worse and worse since last few years and finally a group of its readers, veterans of Polish United Workers' Party and Polish Socialist Youth Union have lost their newspaper. At the same time the young electorate interested in moral changes doesn't vote for DLA because the party doesn't emphasize those matters strong enough. Although DLA has the ability to create coalition, it can only be an addition to CP.
New initiatives on political stage
Burnout of old and outdated party patterns demands searching for alternatives amongst new initiatives. While being supported by old people, the fresh idea of Poland. Converting Poland XXI (Polska XXI) - a project that apparently didn't have any future - into Poland Plus (Polska Plus) by Ludwik Dorn shows that there are same serious players on the Right wanting to challenge Tusk and Kaczynski, willing to lay out their own money in order to realize their ambitious political plan. Dorn wants to change an image of polish demarcation - from media to pragmatic. He talks about national security, changes in constitution, defends health service against privatization. And it is visible that it's all about something. Also Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne of Paweł Piskorski) tends to become an alternative for CP-LaJ. Although DP's (SD do Paweł Piskorski) ratings are low, a backup for it's candidate in president elections, Andrzej Olechowski, reaches 16%, which is a fair advance at the beginning of election campaign. Moreover, DP (SD do Paweł Piskorski) doesn't lounge about in program matters and pulls politicians both from the Right and the Left. Many former politicians from DLA and CP symphatize with DP(SD do Paweł Piskorski). DP (SD do Paweł Piskorski) and Olechowski are considered as liberals. After some interventionist moves of present government and Prime Minister's populist statements, Olechowski gives understand that he wants to build a formation of progressive and innovative forces. Tomasz Nałęcz from DP (Partia Demokratyczna of Brygida Kuźniak) and The Social Democracy of Poland (Socjaldemokracja Polska) declare similarly referring to the heritage of Jacek Kuroń. However, it is evident that initiative of these parties do not encounter interest of media, what more, recently the most cognoscible member of this team, Dariusz Rosati, doesn't take the floor.
Recent opinion pools clearly point that Polls need an alternative. These, who propose the best (and the best served) solution, will be able to fight for a piece of cake with the help of ill-disposed towards the governmetnt CP's electorate.
