I’m afraid that in a film about PiS, Mariusz Błaszczak will be the “final girl” in the last scene

If someone were to make a film about PiS, they would use this idea, although I fear that in the last scene the last girl will be Mariusz Błaszczak. No woman could survive the purges, moods and eccentricities of the main character. Such thoughts have been haunting me for months, or more precisely, ever since Jarosław Kaczyński began selecting candidates for the post of the country’s top official. “Candidates”, because women were eliminated even before Kaczyński began to think about it. When asked a few days ago by Radio Maryja about the list of candidates, the president pointed to his head and then added that “in this time of war, we thought that a woman would not have much of a chance” and that “it is difficult for me to imagine even the model of this lady who would be such a candidate.” He then explained that “it is obvious for a man – he has to be young, tall, impressive, handsome. (…) He has to have a family. It is better that he knows two languages ​​and is internationally familiar.”

Let’s leave aside the question of where these strict criteria (two languages? international education?) were a decade ago, when the president appointed Andrzej Duda, the fate of PiS women seems more interesting to me. After all, in a party that has no obvious candidate and has produced several popular politicians, it seems obvious that they will at least be taken into account.

I’m afraid that in a film about PiS, Mariusz Błaszczak is the “final girl” in the last scene. No woman could survive the purges, moods and eccentricities of the main character.

In these pages, Jacek Gądek and Andrzej Stankiewicz have already written about the way the president treated Beata Szydło, emphasizing that it was not just marginalization, but even humiliation of the former prime minister. And we are talking about a dedicated figure (she was responsible for the legendary 1:27 defeat in the election of the head of the European Council), beloved by the electorate, the face of PiS’s social programs, who happened to win a seat in the European Parliament thanks to the support of half a million people. Seriously, there was a time when Szydło was second only to Duda in the trust rating.

Elżbieta Witek, the country’s second-ranking official, has been aspiring to a grand palace for several years. She is also a figurehead for the so-called. After all, the distinguished figure of the United Right as Marshal of the Sejm recapitulated the votes at every request and, in short, had every right to count on the recapitulation to grant her the highest honors, including the presidency.

That neither Szydło nor Witek are suitable? OK, I won’t argue, but – let’s repeat – PiS has no obvious candidate. Everyone needs to be promoted, and it is possible that Kaczyński will choose a less recognizable figure than his former prime minister and marshal. What matters most to me is the president’s attitude: “A woman? No, because not.”

I know that the phenomenon is deeper and does not only concern PiS. That even if Rafał Trzaskowski decided to run only after the construction of the tram to Wilanów was completed, which would probably eliminate him not only from the race in 2025 but also in 2030, if Radosław Sikorski decided that the presidency did not satisfy his ambitions, the governing party would still not put up a woman. Only if Prime Minister Donald Tusk decided that he was not interested in taking care of the chandelier would PO politicians have the slightest chance of being nominated. The difference is that PO has an obvious candidate and does not make the elimination of women a rallying cry.

In any case, we are still stuck with some patriarchal whims, probably the president’s opinion (and this is not his defense, to be clear) was influenced by some polls that showed that according to the nation, the “head of state” should be a man.

Perhaps this is also what is at stake in the US elections: a decade ago, Donald Trump showed the way to populists around the world, perhaps Kamala Harris’s triumph shows that a woman can also be president. That if he is fit to run a nuclear power plant, he can also run Krakowskie Przedmieście.