Civic Platform politicians announced that the January election, which is to choose the new party chairman, will be the beginning of a new chapter, whose epilogue will consist of the party winning the parliamentary election in 2023. However, according to political commentators, the candidates do not give hope for the Platform to overcome its crisis.
Six politicians from the Civic Platform party will ultimately be applying for the position of chairman. Bartosz Arłukowicz announced his candidacy at the end of December, while Senator Bogdan Zdrojewski, Borys Budka, Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, and Joanna Mucha all provided statements on their readiness to run for the head of the Civic Platform. The candidacy of Tomasz Siemoniak, who was recommended yesterday by Grzegorz Schetyna, is also supported by Civic Platform MEP Andrzej Halicki.
”I think the ability to connect is very important and Tomasz Siemoniak certainly has it. However, Borys Budka or Bartosz Arłukowicz are also very important, they are good candidates and very dynamic politicians. All of them are important, and it will be the Civic Platform members who will ultimately decide who will take over the most important functions in the party”- says Andrzej Halicki, member of the European Parliament, Civic Platform.
European Parliament member, Joachim Brudziński, assesses the Civic Platform candidates much more skeptically. The Law and Justice member said that the politicians in question remind him of a period when the Civic Platform was headed by former Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz.
”Tomasz Siemoniak is not an exciting politician, much like all the other candidates. Neither Siemoniak, Budka, nor Arłukowicz are exciting politicians from my point of view. None of them are politicians of the same merit as Schetyna is now, or Donald Tusk was in the past”- says Joachim Brudziński, member of the European Parliament, Law and Justice.
”Grzegorz Schetyna realised that he had no chance of winning so he backed down. However, are any of these candidates a glimmer of hope and a new quality in the Civic Platform? They are faces that we’ve known for years and I don’t think they can change anything”- says Błażej Spychalski, spokesperson for the President of Poland.
The first round of the elections of the new head of the Civic Platform is to take place on January 25.