Turnaround on Giertych’s run for the Senate. “I need to order tests”
Roman Giertych changed his mind and announced that he might run in the Senate elections. “I do not feel in any way bound by obedience to the decisions of the Senate pact,” Giertych concluded in an extensive Twitter post. In it, he spared no words of criticism against the Left.
Recall: Koalicja Obywatelska, Lewica, PSL and Polska 2050 reached an agreement on the Senate pact, i.e. a joint list of candidates for senators.
Giertych outside the Senate pact
On Wednesday, August 9, PSL chairman Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced that the announcement of the candidates’ names was a matter of the next few days. He explained that there were still 2-3 names to be agreed.
However, the leader of the peasants’ party stipulated that the name of Roman Giertych would not be included in the list. During the negotiation of the pact, it was not reported by any group.
In addition, activists of the Left had already announced that they did not agree to his candidacy. The vice-chairman of the New Left, Robert Biedroń, argued that Giertych was “the godfather of the Confederation and introduced the All-Polish Youth to the salons of Polish politics.”
Giertych announced his resignation from running for the Senate…
On Wednesday evening, approx. 19, Giertych announced on Twitter that due to the strong resistance of the Left, he resigned from running for the senator’s seat. He stressed that he did not want to allow the votes cast to be dispersed among the parties forming the Senate pact.
“They successfully blocked my run for the Senate as part of the pact. Zandberg’s and Biejat’s announcements that even if I took up running in the constituency indicated by the pact (Olsztyn was offered to me), they would quietly put up a left-wing opponent for me, which made my start in such a formula senseless. Because they meant that the Left puts a veto to such an extent that in my case the pact does not apply to them” – we read in Giertych’s entry.
… and after a few hours he changed his mind
However, after a few hours, the politician announced that he had changed his mind. In the next entry – which was published on Thursday, August 10, at approx. 2 a.m. – he stated that he “does not feel bound in any way by obedience to the decisions of the pact.”
He explained that many people urged him to start from Warsaw and thus compete not only with the candidate of Law and Justice, but also with the candidate of the Left Magdalena Biejat.
“I have read countless comments about my resignation from running (…) Since the Left, the Together Party and the MP personally publicly declared that even if I started from the Senate Pact, they would put up a counter-candidate for me (…) If they publicly declared violations of the possible provisions of the pact in which they participated, then I do not have to worry about them (…) Mr. Zandberg with Mrs. Żukowska and Biejat have no right to deprive me of my civil rights,” argued Giertych.
When will Giertych decide to run for the Senate?
He added that he had not yet made a final decision on his start, as he “must commission research” regarding the possible distribution of votes in Warsaw.
“In the next few days, I will make a decision analyzing first of all whether breaking up the opposition votes will not threaten PiS’s victory in this constituency. It seems, looking at the election results in Warsaw, that even dividing the opposition’s votes exactly in half does not result in the PiS victory, but I have to order research to be sure in my conscience that such a variant is not a threat, continued Giertych.
Bitter words for Biejat
By the way, he criticized the aforementioned policy of the Left. He accused her of cooperation with Law and Justice. What, according to Giertych, was this cooperation supposed to consist of?
“She boasted that in the presidential election in the second round in 2015 she cast an invalid vote. Therefore, she is responsible (…) for all the tragic consequences of Andrzej Duda’s caricatured presidency (…) Mrs. Biejat has supported PiS in voting many times in the Sejm. Its leftism does not look like Miller, but rather Macierewicz from the times when he was running around with a shirt of communist ideologues. And she did not mind supporting the largest Polish concern led by Mr. Obajtek. There is no guarantee that in the hour of trial she will not join PiS, like her colleague Mrs. Pawłowska, added Giertych.