In his first election campaign appearance Hołownia made an ill –judged reference to the Smolensk disaster. After a wave of harsh criticism, Hołownia was forced to apologize. According to some commentators this shows that the role of the independent candidate, which Hołownia tried to play, has ended in total failure.
In the unfortunate spot, a birch tree is shown, after which a paper plane appears… This was received by many as an allusion to the initial theory of the crash of the Polish presidential plane near Smoleńsk, as a birch tree cut in half by the plane loosing altitude was believed to had been the cause of the disaster. A theory which was quickly disproven, but quickly became the symbol of the incompetent investigation of the crash. After the storm which erupted because of the election spot of Szymon Hołownia, the presidential candidate backed off and apologized. At the same time he insisted in his published statement that he did not see the suggestive reference to the Smoleńsk disaster. Earlier he was explaining that he would never think to check the particular variety of tree shown in the election spot. His convoluted explanations were not received well by MPs across party lines.
“I am not even talking about that candidate’s election team’s responsibility, but look at the moral and political responsibility of the candidate himself. Yes, we know that he is working together with his team, but in this case heads should roll immediately”, commented Jan Maria Jackowski, a senator of the Law and Justice party.
The presidential election campaign has just started. The newest poll by Social Changes is presenting the run off election pairs, assuming that none of the candidates wins in the first round. Incumbent candidate Andrzej Duda is predicted to win with Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska 47 to 40%, similarly with Szymon Hołownia 46 to 38% and exactly the same percentage prediction wins with Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. The poll predicts that the incumbent Andrzej Duda will win with Robert Biedroń 48 to 37%. The election is scheduled for Sunday May 10th and if none of the candidates reaches more than 50% of the votes, the run off election day is to be Sunday, May 24th.