Latest news with #Toruń
Irish Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Pub takes centre stage in presidential race as Polish voters go for another round
Even before 29 million Poles choose a new president on Sunday, many believe their country's political future has already been decided – in a pub three hours northwest of Warsaw. Sunday's presidential run-off is a close race between two very different candidates: Rafal Trzaskowski, the capital's pro-EU, liberal mayor; and Karol Nawrocki, a national conservative historian with Maga-like ambitions. The new head of state, with control of the defence forces and powers to veto legislation, will shape Poland's path in the EU and Nato. And supercharge – or hobble – prime minister Donald Tusk 's efforts to deliver on political promises that took him back to power in December 2023. With just one percentage point separating them, both presidential hopefuls are courting Slawomir Mentzen, a far-right libertarian politician and pub-owner. READ MORE The 38-year-old finished third in the presidential election first round almost a fortnight ago, making his 15 per cent voter bloc now the most valuable commodity in Polish politics. Poland's conservative presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki. Photograph: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images Govem Mentzen is by far the most popular candidate among younger voters – he took a third of the under-30 vote – and Poland's two presidential front-runners were quick to accept an invitation to his craft brewery and pub in the small town of Torun. It is filled with political bric-a-brac and agitprop and operates a very public list of banned politicians. Metzen posted his conversations from here on his YouTube channel, where he has more than one million subscribers, simultaneously boosting both his political profile and craft beer brand. He promised a candidate endorsement days later. The trip to Torun paid off for Trzaskowski almost immediately when a post-conversation picture of him sharing a beer with Mentzen went viral on social media. Warsaw's 53-year-old mayor needs all the help he can get – and the real prospect of defeat has set alarm bells ringing with Tusk. The liberal prime minister has spent his first 18 months back in power battling on two fronts: a president allied with the opposition Law and Jusice (PiS) party who has vetoed judicial reforms and other legislation; and warring coalition allies who disagree on key election promises, including a more liberal abortion policy. 'I'm sorry, yes, you all expected us to do more, faster and be stronger,' said Tusk at a weekend rally. 'So I ask you: give us the strength, so that we can change Poland as we promised.' As PiS-allied candidate Nawrocki is presenting himself as Poland's last defence against a looming Tusk 'coup'. 'I will be the president of your future, I won't allow our future and our childrens' future to be stolen by those who want the destruction of the Polish state,' he said. Earlier this month Nawrocki was photographed in the White House with Donald Trump , who has promised further US military investment in Poland if Nawrocki wins. Nawrocki has promised a strongly nationalist platform with another migration crackdown and presidential pushback against EU plans to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. 'We are for the Polish farmer, the Polish field and Polish bread at the Polish table,' he told a rally on Sunday in Warsaw. But Nawrocki has struggled to maintain his message in the campaign amid a surge of scandals: over an undeclared second home; alleged links to organised crime and prostitution rings, which he denies; and revelations he participated, in the early 2000s, in organised football hooligan fights. He called them a form of 'noble, masculine combat' and, in the last days of campaigning, began dropping into rally speeches mentions of 'stolen elections'. That has raised speculation that, if he loses, his PiS backers will challenge Sunday's vote as illegitimate. Presidential candidate Rafal Trzaskowski is also mayor of Warsaw. Photograph: Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images Election analysts are predicting a tight result after polls close at 9pm. The first round attracted a record 67 per cent of voters and post-poll analysis revealed the usual Polish divide: Trzaskowski more popular in liberal western Poland and Nawrocki ahead in more conservative eastern regions. Trzaskowski was also the favourite among Poles voting outside the country, on 37 per cent. However, the Trump-endorsed Nawrocki took 42 per cent of the sizeable US Polish diaspora vote. With such a tight race, polling agencies say the expat vote could swing the final outcome. After stringing along both presidential candidates, on Wednesday Mentzen decided to endorse neither. On a YouTube livestream he said he saw 'no reason' to vote for the 'slippery' Trzaskowski, accusing him of breaking promises and disowning failures. Meanwhile, Nawrocki's life was a 'great cinematic tale', Mentzen said, but after a series of colourful campaign revelations, 'I wouldn't be surprised if there are more such episodes in his past'. With all eyes on him, Mentzen promised to smash the liberal and national-conservative camps that have dominated Polish politics for two decades. His aim is to go mainstream with Confederation, his party that marries libertarian economics with far-right nationalism. 'I don't know what the future holds but it may turn out that, in two years, it'll be Confederation deciding who governs Poland,' said Mentzen to his YouTube audience. 'I intend to end this duopoly and finally bring change to Poland.'
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘The same faces, swapping places': Polish candidates aim to break two-party hold on power
Hidden off a charming market square in central Poland, a bar offers the closest physical experience to walking into the internet. Stretching incongruously through medieval basements, Pub Mentzen in Toruń feels like it was designed by someone on a full-fat diet of online politics. As you enter, a gallery wall displays mugshots of 'customers we don't serve', but instead of rowdy patrons, it features Polish political leaders, including at least five prime ministers. The wall presents a surreal indictment of the country's political elite. There is a 'meme museum', a blown-up, fake 'gazillion złoty' banknote with the face of a former prime minister, and a gold-plated figure of that leader with a begging bowl. In the toilets, you listen to Donald Tusk speaking German and bizarre speeches by other Polish politicians. The pub could be dismissed as eccentric if it wasn't owned by Sławomir Mentzen, the tax adviser turned politician of the libertarian far-right Konfederacja (Confederation) party that has been tipped to come third in this Sunday's presidential election in Europe's sixth-largest economy. And it is not just a commercial enterprise, but an expression of his politics. About 400 people gathered in the rain as Mentzen, 38, came to his home town to deliver a shotgun pitch covering taxes, political elites, public services, EU regulations, immigration, green policies, and the general state of the world. He first rose to notoriety in 2019, presenting 'the Mentzen five': 'We don't want Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes and the EU.' He has since distanced himself from that list, but remains on the far-right end of the spectrum. Emboldened by Donald Trump, he seeks to turn his unfiltered language, such as in his criticism of Ukrainians in Poland, into political strength. Related: Runoffs, reruns and rightwingers: Europe prepares for electoral 'super Sunday' His rise as the 'common sense' candidate – capturing the discontent among younger male voters, and with 1.6 million followers on TikTok – allowed him to briefly challenge the mainstream conservative candidate, Karol Nawrocki, for second place in polls. Recent comments on abortion and tuition fees reversed most of his gains, but in the weeks leading up to the vote he was on course to secure a double-digit vote share. In a well-rehearsed speech – Mentzen completed 348 rallies, visiting all of the country's powiaty (counties) – he raged against 20 years of the duopoly between the country's two main parties: Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Platform (PO) and Jarosław Kaczyński's populist-nationalist Law and Justice (PiS), which have dominated the country's politics since 2005. In this election, they have the two frontrunners once again, in the centrist mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, and Nawrocki. 'For God's sake, how long can we wait for something to change?' Grzegorz Płaczek, a Konfederacja MP, tells the Guardian. 'It's the same faces, just swapping places.' This anti-establishment rhetoric strikes a chord. Never before in the country's post-1989 history was the combined vote share of the top two candidates forecast to be as low as this year. Ben Stanley, a sociologist and political scientist at SWPS University in Warsaw, said: 'PiS is far from detoxifying itself after eight years in power, while PO is seen as responsible for the government's lack of ambition in key areas for younger voters, particularly abortion and housing. That leaves the race more open to others.' Another challenger hoping to break the duopoly is Adrian Zandberg. Born in Denmark to Polish parents, the 45-year-old is a towering figure – literally, nicknamed 'the Mighty Dane' – with a booming voice and hard-left socialist views. In the last parliamentary election in 2023, his party, Razem (Together), ran as part of the coalition against PiS but declined to join the government because it didn't feel it was offered the tools to meet its promises to voters. Now 'outside the tent pissing in', he, too, has become a brutal reviewer of 'two 70-year-old men' he says are stuck in disputes irrelevant to younger voters. Addressing about 800 people near Warsaw University on Wednesday, he focused on immediate challenges facing his audience, such as housing and healthcare, as well as Poland's long-term ambitions. He spoke in an urgent, angry tone – the crowd shouted 'disgrace' as he rhetorically asked them about the track record of previous administrations – and urged voters to back a Poland 'made of nuclear power, silicon and steel, and not of plywood'. He resists one label that captures his views, having recently said: 'I am less interested in the word 'the left', more in pro-social and libertarian change.' Aleks Szczerbiak, a professor of politics at the University of Sussex, says: 'For this 'stuff-them' electorate, a reaction against the duopoly … the ideological profile doesn't really matter that much.' Zandberg's fellow Razem MP Maciej Konieczny says the left's response to the far right needs to go beyond 'old leftwing aesthetics', adding: 'Younger people may not have settled political opinions, but they can smell bullshit and want [politics] to be about something. 'And we are credible: because we actually refused to play ball.' Polls published before the country went into electoral silence on Friday night suggested Mentzen and Zandberg would take almost half of all votes from under-35s, streets ahead of the established candidates. Despite polarised views on migration and abortion, some of their voters even suggested they could see themselves voting for the other candidate, instead of mainstream parties. Angelika, a 'campaigner on maternity leave', is not surprised when asked about these views at Zandberg's rally. 'The young electorate of Zandberg and Mentzen want largely similar things: to get stability and live a dignified life,' even if their proposed solutions are largely incompatible, she says. 'Instead we get this ping-pong from PO and PiS.' The two candidates could get up to a combined 20% of the vote share on Sunday. That would force the two mainstream candidates who are expected to advance to the runoff to at least consider how to court their supporters. If they fail to do that, they, too, will end up on the wall at Pub Mentzen. And the 2027 parliamentary election is just two years away, with that anger not going anywhere.
The Guardian
17-05-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘The same faces, swapping places': Polish candidates aim to break two-party hold on power
Hidden off a charming market square in central Poland, a bar offers the closest physical experience to walking into the internet. Stretching incongruously through medieval basements, Pub Mentzen in Toruń feels like it was designed by someone on a full-fat diet of online politics. As you enter, a gallery wall displays mugshots of 'customers we don't serve', but instead of rowdy patrons, it features Polish political leaders, including at least five prime ministers. The wall presents a surreal indictment of the country's political elite. There is a 'meme museum', a blown-up, fake 'gazillion złoty' banknote with the face of a former prime minister, and a gold-plated figure of that leader with a begging bowl. In the toilets, you listen to Donald Tusk speaking German and bizarre speeches by other Polish politicians. The pub could be dismissed as eccentric if it wasn't owned by Sławomir Mentzen, the tax adviser turned politician of the libertarian far-right Konfederacja (Confederation) party that has been tipped to come third in this Sunday's presidential election in Europe's sixth-largest economy. And it is not just a commercial enterprise, but an expression of his politics. About 400 people gathered in the rain as Mentzen, 38, came to his home town to deliver a shotgun pitch covering taxes, political elites, public services, EU regulations, immigration, green policies, and the general state of the world. He first rose to notoriety in 2019, presenting 'the Mentzen five': 'We don't want Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes and the EU.' He has since distanced himself from that list, but remains on the far-right end of the spectrum. Emboldened by Donald Trump, he seeks to turn his unfiltered language, such as in his criticism of Ukrainians in Poland, into political strength. His rise as the 'common sense' candidate – capturing the discontent among younger male voters, and with 1.6 million followers on TikTok – allowed him to briefly challenge the mainstream conservative candidate, Karol Nawrocki, for second place in polls. Recent comments on abortion and tuition fees reversed most of his gains, but in the weeks leading up to the vote he was on course to secure a double-digit vote share. In a well-rehearsed speech – he completed 348 rallies during his campaign – he raged against 20 years of the duopoly between the country's two main parties: Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Coalition (KO) and Jarosław Kaczyński's populist-nationalist Law and Justice (PiS), which have dominated the country's politics since 2005. In this election, they have the two frontrunners once again, in the centrist mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, and Nawrocki. 'For God's sake, how long can we wait for something to change?' Grzegorz Płaczek, a fellow Konfederacja MP,tells the Guardian. 'It's the same faces, just swapping places.' This anti-establishment rhetoric strikes a chord. Never before in the country's post-1989 history has the combined vote share of the top two candidates been forecast to be as low as this year. Ben Stanley, a sociologist and political scientist at SWPS University in Warsaw, said: 'PiS is far from detoxifying itself after eight years in power, while PO is seen as responsible for the government's lack of ambition in key areas for younger voters, particularly abortion and housing. That leaves the race more open to others.' Another challenger hoping to break the duopoly is Adrian Zandberg. Born in Denmark to Polish parents, the 45-year-old is a towering figure – literally, nicknamed 'the Mighty Dane' – with a booming voice and hard-left socialist views. In the last parliamentary election in 2023, his party, Razem (Together), ran as part of the coalition against PiS but declined to join the government because it didn't feel it was offered the tools to meet its promises to voters. Now 'outside the tent pissing in', he, too, has become a brutal reviewer of 'two 70-year-old men' he says are stuck in disputes irrelevant to younger voters. Addressing about 800 people near Warsaw University on Wednesday, he focused on immediate challenges facing his audience, such as housing and healthcare, as well as Poland's long-term ambitions. He speaks in an urgent, angry tone – crowds shout 'disgrace' as he rhetorically asks them about the track record of previous administrations – and urges voters to back a Poland 'made of nuclear power, silicon and steel, and not of plywood'. He resists one label that captures his views, having recently said: 'I am less interested in the word 'the left', more in pro-social and libertarian change.' Aleks Szczerbiak, a professor of politics at the University of Sussex, says: 'For this 'stuff-them' electorate, a reaction against the duopoly … the ideological profile doesn't really matter that much.' Zandberg's fellow Razem MP Maciej Konieczny says the left's response to the far right needs to go beyond 'old leftwing aesthetics', adding: 'Younger people may not have settled political opinions, but they can smell bullshit and want [politics] to be about something. 'And we are credible: because we actually refused to play ball.' Polls published before the country went into electoral silence on Friday night suggested Mentzen and Zandberg would take almost half of all votes from under-35s, streets ahead of the established candidates. Despite polarised views on migration and abortion, some of their voters even suggested they could see themselves voting for the other candidate, instead of mainstream parties. Angelika, a 'campaigner on maternity leave', is not surprised when asked about these views at Zandberg's rally. 'The young electorate of Zandberg and Mentzen want largely similar things: to get stability and live a dignified life,' even if their proposed solutions are largely incompatible, she says. 'Instead we get this ping-pong from PO and PiS.' The two candidates could get up to a combined 20% of the vote share on Sunday. That would force the two mainstream candidates who are expected to advance to the runoff to at least consider how to court their supporters. If they fail, they, too, will end up on the wall at Pub Mentzen. And the 2027 parliamentary election is just two years away, with that anger not going anywhere.
