After elections in Poland: Duda gambles at the expense of democracy

Poland’s President Duda wants to task the PiS with forming a government – even though it lacks the majority to do so. In doing so, the PiS party soldier is mocking the voters.

President Andrzej Duda is called “Dlugopis” in Poland: the “ballpoint pen” – the man who signs everything the government presents to him. For eight years, almost without exception.

The few moments in which Duda deviated from the rule always led to attention in Poland, to hopeful amazement that Duda might yet emancipate himself from his political discoverer, the man who had turned him from a minor MP into president , by the head of the PiS party, Jarosław Kaczyński. Hope was always in vain.

The PiS man in Presidential Palace

Only once did I hear a Pole say: “Andrzej Duda is the president of all Poles. A president who excludes or disrespects no one.” The quote comes from Duda himself, who may be a loyal party soldier, but not a humble one. Even PiS supporters know: Duda is not balanced. He is her man in the presidential palace.

But now the PiS has been voted out – with the highest voter turnout in democratic Poland, higher than in 1989. Who is Duda still loyal to if he delays the PiS’s loss of power as long as possible?

What are the reasons?

There is now speculation in Poland that Duda wants to inherit Kaczyński after his presidency ends in 2025 – or that he wants to inflate the price of his cooperation with the future government in order to avoid legal prosecution and perhaps move away to a prestigious office abroad. Poland’s ambassador to the UN says Duda would like that. Or perhaps it is simply the habitus of the PiS-loyal Duda not to do anything that might displease Kaczyński.

Whatever it is, Duda is gambling at the expense of democracy, on the backs of the people he swore to represent. The election was a leap of faith from a distrustful society. And the president is mocking the voters when, time and again, he uses state-sponsored television speeches to act as if there were two serious political options.

He doesn’t seem to care

The PiS no longer has a majority, the president also knows that. Time is of the essence, the EU funds blocked due to the PiS justice reform are urgently needed, a new budget must be passed, otherwise there is a risk of new elections.

Poland is missed – as a partner of Ukraine, as a neighbor of Germany, as a member of the EU. The president knows that too. A young generation of Poles is in the process of saying goodbye to Polish politics, and often enough also to Poland itself, out of sheer frustration. The president knows all of this. But he doesn’t seem to care.

All others – inside and outside Poland – can do is wait and prepare. This requires respect for the Polish constitution and democracy, even with a president who disrespects them so much.