PiS activates the punishment mechanism. Kaczyński must play the role of father

But since December 13, the party has not had access to the state assets it has been using so eagerly for years.

– Yes, but now there are problems with the financing of the campaign. And we have a presidential campaign ahead of us, which also requires a lot of capital. The previous campaign in 2020 cost, if I remember correctly, PLN 28 million. In addition, let us remember that PiS has a loan that it is repaying. Mariusz Błaszczak in Money.pl stated that it is PLN 35 million, with interest already being charged. These are major financial difficulties. We know that the Minister of Finance will pay the party a reduced subsidy compared to what was indicated by the National Electoral Commission. There are some problems going on…

In the same interview, Błaszczak said he did not have the money to vote for a potential presidential candidate.

– Such messages should be treated with caution or even with suspicion. Such messages are a standard PiS strategy. This time he is setting an alarmist tone that – by depriving the opposition of financial resources – the principles of democracy are being violated. Maybe he wants to arouse pity in this way? Maybe he is attracting attention because people will talk about it? We need to somehow encourage donors. After all, after initially being delighted by the announcements that “PLN 3 million had been raised by Monday!” it turned out that this was not so much money, considering the scale of the challenges associated with the campaign. Secondly, the most important thing is the continuity of party funding, not one-off payments. Poles are good at such outbursts, but it is another thing to create a permanent mechanism that would ensure the regularity of popular funding. Especially since the image of the party is deteriorating due to the scale of the crimes.

There are still “voluntary” contributions from activists, and not all of them do so willingly…

– Access to key positions and the opening of various types of foundations, which were also vehicles for sucking public money, were closed. PiS, therefore, activates the mechanism of pity. An old-style game. The figure of Jarosław Kaczyński resembles a kind but also strict father. Just like in the conservative and traditional family model, if there is a problem, we have to take every penny out of our pockets and defend what is common at all costs.

But is PiS credible in saying “we are poor”? Over the past eight years, we have seen politicians from this camp in expensive limousines, wearing expensive watches, with ever-increasing amounts in their asset declarations…

– It is difficult for the party to have credibility in this matter. However, the fact is that the environment has completely changed for activists, they are no longer able to generate easy profits for themselves, there are no longer many safe havens to which PiS politicians were often sent. The exemplary board of directors of the National Bank of Poland cannot expand any further. And let us remember that in recent years many party activists have held positions far above their qualifications. Today, it is difficult for them to find their way in everyday life. And here the president tells us to blame the party.

We have a very clear example of the chaos in PiS activities last week. Przystanek Polska, a youth gathering that was supposed to be a counterbalance to Rafał Trzaskowski’s Campus Polska. Law and Justice politicians talked loudly about it for a few days, and then the event was suddenly cancelled. Why?

– In my opinion, it was an attempt to release a balloon to see how public opinion would react to this proposal and how the name itself would be received. Perhaps PiS will return to this idea in the future. However, let us remember that it is much easier to raise teenagers if you have something up your sleeve. Not long ago, these young people could even be assistants to MPs, presidents and ministers who had some money to hand out. Today, their position has changed: they are in the opposition, but many of them are subject to various trials and the scale of abuses is increasingly revealed. This also does not attract young people interested in participating in public life to PiS, because it fits into the stereotype that politics is dirty and based on unclear principles.

We have tangible evidence that PiS members were involved in criminal activities. A photo of an arrest warrant for the former head of the Strategic Reserves Agency, Michał K., has been circulated on the Internet. We are talking about a very young man who was an example of a brilliant official career.

– And this is not a good calling card to encourage people to get involved in the activities of this party, which is now in trouble, but it should be emphasized and constantly reminded that the problems are self-caused. After all, during the eight years of PiS rule, legal regulations were violated and the rule of law was destroyed through the creation of parallel institutions, not to mention the ethical dimension. I think that for young people who want to be active in public life, PiS is no longer a good place to gain political experience.

Is PiS, in looking for a candidate in the presidential elections, actually looking for an honorable defeat in the second round?

I would not draw such sweeping conclusions. Please look at the latest poll by Rzeczpospolita. It shows that PiS is the party with the most supporters. Meanwhile, the parties in the governing coalition are not gaining any supporters. And let’s not forget how loyal the Law and Justice electorate is. Its more traditional part will not leave this party in trouble. The question is: what will PiS do to win over more people? We mentioned the young, but a merger with Sovereign Poland is about to happen and the door is practically closed on this issue.

And doesn’t this search for a candidate resemble a beauty contest? Today, every PiS politician mentioned in this group has to answer questions from the media about whether he or she is – as the president wants – “impressive”.

– (EN) In this case, I would not mock President Kaczyński and his expressions. Since the advent of political marketing, these characteristics related to the image and feelings aroused in voters have been important. Be it in the US, France or Poland. And yes, being handsome is one of the desirable characteristics, whether we like it or not. On the part of Jarosław Kaczyński, perhaps this language is a bit archaic, because what does it really mean for someone to be “impressive”? On the other hand, it shows what the president has in mind, these traditional values, emphasizing that his candidate should simply be “manly”, which is what he said directly.

Another interesting phenomenon may also appear around PiS this autumn. The party now has two large and supportive terrestrial television stations – Republic has teamed up with the Karnowski brothers in Poland. And although on paper it seems that this will only help Law and Justice, it all started with a dispute from the very beginning. Tomasz Sakiewicz, for example, did not broadcast part of the president’s speech and asked for donations for his foundation. Will the hungry media bite back and make life difficult for the party?

– This is a very interesting problem, because PiS has largely built its own special language and has been effective in implementing it. Also thanks to the fact that it took over public television, had Jacek Kurski and thus assumed the government of souls. Now it wants to do this from the position of the opposition. From here it creates replacement expressions. Instead of talking about the ruling camp or the October 15 coalition, it talks about the “December 13 coalition”. It also uses the term “pathopower”, after all, it even created a team to observe what this “pathopower” is doing. This is also very interesting, because the term “pathointelligence” itself was introduced by the rapper Mata, son of Marcin Matczak, who was associated with another side of the scene, and now this language has been adopted.

However, the creation of this parallel media center will show whether and how these television stations will cannibalize each other. What often happens with populist groups is that they find it very difficult to build a long-term agreement or develop principles of cooperation. They often fight among themselves from within, losing their effectiveness. And here, in addition to the political context, there is also economic interest. Will they be able to generate enough resources to build media outlets that attract an audience? Will they be able to fill certain niches and complement each other? Or will they clash with each other, wanting to broadcast similar content, and alienate these recipients from each other? This will be interesting to watch.

If PiS ends up losing state subsidies as a party, will this harm our democracy?

– At the moment, we are not saying that PiS is losing 100 percent of its funding, we are just saying that some of the funds are being withdrawn as a result of illegal campaign financing. Of course, opposition parties must have sources of funding, and it is important that election campaigns are financed in accordance with the law and ethical principles. And perhaps this is a good time to seriously address the reform of legal and ethical regulations regarding the financing of political campaigns. Talk more about this, show that the law is not a dead law. Dura lex sed lextough law, but the law is a principle that, in this case, will favor democracy.