She run for president, she boycotted the elections, she again decided to run and now she may be replaced as candidate just before the elections. According to PAP, the Polish Press Agency, the Civic Platform party’s candidate for president Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska is to resign from running in the elections. The catastrophic campaign of what seemed to be the biggest opposition party in Poland is to be saved by the current mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski. In the opinion of some commentators, Trzaskowski will have to put up a fight straight from “Mission Impossible” which could very well mean the end for the Civic Platform.
In the latest survey conducted by the Social Changes pollster, at the request of the wpolityce.pl website, as much as 41% of respondents answered that Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska should withdraw from running for president of Poland. According to unofficial information, the Civic Platform may soon change its candidate. It is rumoured that the successor of Kidawa-Błońska may be the current mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Defence, Radosław Sikorski, or the current Speaker of the Senate, Tomasz Grodzki.
“41% of the Civic Platform party’s electorate does not want Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska to run for president. That is a shocking result. Only 26% would vote for her, so I think this is the end for her and the Civic Platform will try its best to present a different candidate. We will know more if the proceedings in the Senate concerning the new elections bill get prolonged. This would mean that the Civic Platform is getting signatures for another candidate, and they need time for that. There are also rumours that Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz will help them get the signatures, which of course would be nothing short of a kiss of death from him”, columnist Marek Król commented on the matter.
“This is first and foremost an admission of defeat and not just for Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, but for the entire party as well. They discussed this candidate, had months of debates and elections inside the party, and that was the best they had to offer to Poles. After several months, it all turned out to be one big flop. Now, we are about to start the roller-coaster all over again, and if the new candidate is indeed Rafał Trzaskowski, the current mayor of Warsaw, it will mean great chaos for the Warsaw city hall. I don’t think it would be an easy campaign for Trzaskowski, because what is appreciated in the capital does not necessarily need to be appreciated in the rest of the country”, added Krzysztof Karnkowski, also a columnist.
Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska claims that she has no intention of backing away from the presidential elections. However, given the results of the latest opinion polls, it is not surprising that more and more politicians of the Civic Platform party bounce around the idea of changing their candidate. It is even said that the only ones rooting for Kidawa-Błońska to run in the elections are politicians of the ruling Law and Justice party.