Hołownia chose a familiar path
There is no space here to tell the story of the attempts to break up the duopoly, most of them are remembered only by parliamentary correspondents (but these are people who remember everything). As an anecdote, one can mention that the overthrow of Tusk and Kaczyński was promised by Janusz Palikot, Ryszard Petru, Paweł Kukiz, Robert Biedroń (right, reading these names makes it easier to understand why PO-PiS is doing well?). Let’s focus on the youngest creation, because it perfectly shows why persecuting PO and PiS cannot be an end in itself.
Here’s a quick observation: I am very suspicious of any political organization that includes the name of its leader in its name. Semantically, Law and Justice sounds much better than Jarosław Kaczyński’s Law and Justice, Razem inspires more trust than Adrian Zandberg’s Razem, and when I see the name Poland 2050, I even have a shadow of hope that it is Poland. However, when it comes to Szymon Hołownia’s Poland 2050, I seriously fear that it is about something else. Ah, ego.
However, my distrust would not matter if Szymon Hołownia’s Poland 2050 brought fantastic ideas to the Sejm, was politically efficient and achieved spectacular successes. However, we are talking about a formation whose achievements are limited to putting Marshal Szymon Hołownia in the presidency and exporting Michał Koboska to Brussels. As for ideas, in addition to the desire to hold referendums on issues on which referendums are not held, Poland 2050 has put forward the project to reduce health insurance premiums.
– We will die for health insurance premiums. We will die so that Polish entrepreneurs can finally live, Hołownia said in March and it was not a failure. He recently argued that the health insurance premium “does not cure anyone’s health. It kills Polish companies, small Polish businesses, companies, sole proprietors.”
Health insurance premiums are a bit like a coal mine
I don’t know why these quotes don’t gain public traction. After all, this is an idea like: after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, let’s leave NATO, let’s fight for road safety by raising the speed limit, let’s stop the climate catastrophe by digging more mines.
The facts are as follows: the COVID-19 pandemic has recently exposed the fragility of public services, the healthcare system has de facto collapsed, and Poland has taken the leading position in Europe in terms of excess deaths. It is also common knowledge that healthcare requires much better organisation, modern thinking, but above all, gigantic funding (PLN 92.5-158.9 billion in 2025-2027, according to the report “Financial gap in the healthcare system in Poland”). This is not a story about opinions. A politician who says that health insurance premiums “do not cure anyone’s health” – this is no exaggeration – is destroying the country.
And that is already an achievement: Szymon Hołownia entered politics, announcing a third path, taking advantage of social fatigue with the PO-PiS duopoly and the real threats resulting from polarization. After a few months in the Sejm, it is clear that there is no doubt about a new quality. That perhaps there is nothing to complain about, because what we will get in return could be as bad or even worse than the two giants that have ruled Poland for two decades.
