Czy Bogusław Nowak zostanie prezydentem?
Bogusław Nowak, councillor, owner of the Villa Ambasada restaurant and hotel, and co-organizer and originator of Gliniada, officially informed the media today that he will run in the election for mayor of Bolesławiec. Bernard Łętowski, a former journalist, says he will help Nowak with his campaign. “The election campaign team will be formed after the official campaign begins, that is, after the election date is announced and Bogusław Nowak’s committee is registered,” Łętowski explains. “I am helping him with the campaign and hope to be a member of the campaign team. It is too early to choose a campaign chief when there is not one yet.”
Mayor Piotr Roman says he expected such a decision. He is not surprised, although he believes Nowak will be a serious opponent. “It is difficult for me to assess this decision, because I only found out a moment ago,” Piotr Roman comments. “I anticipated it and had spoken about it earlier to several people. So I am not surprised. He will be a difficult candidate. I have known him for many years and know that he is my unyielding opponent. Probably, if there is a second round, Nowak will support my rival or give him his votes.”
Dariusz Kwaśniewski, the PO candidate for mayor, asked several days earlier about the possibility of Nowak running, said that this is always the candidate’s own decision. “Bogusław Nowak can run,” Kwaśniewski said. “When you make such a decision, you can find out the real number of people supporting us. A campaign is a hard piece of work. I also believe that Nowak may take some votes away from Piotr Roman.”
Karol Stasik, head of the local PO, believes that Nowak’s radicalism will alienate sensible people who support Civic Platform. “At last, Bogusław Nowak has started working for his own account,” Stasik says. “I myself am curious how his concept of leadership will work in practice. Not everyone is born a Reagan. Nowak’s radicalism is closer to PiS than PO, and it is these voters that Nowak may mobilize. Civic Platform is supported by sensible people who prefer those with moderate views and actions. And Dariusz Kwaśniewski is such a person.”
In February this year, in the article Who will be mayor of Bolesławiec?, we predicted precisely this list of candidates: Kwaśniewski – Nowak – Roman.
Below we present Bogusław Nowak’s statement:
I have decided to run in the upcoming election for the position of mayor of Bolesławiec. It was not an easy decision, because it entails many consequences for my professional and private life. But I believe it is worth taking the opportunity to bring change to our city. I believe I can be a means of achieving this goal.
I know that I am not the candidate of everyone’s dreams and may not fit the stereotype of a local-government official. But I think we have all had enough of stereotypical local-government officials who have lived on public money for years, fastened into rigid ways of thinking about local government as if they were suits. It is time to open up, to open Bolesławiec, and to take care of the city and its residents. It is time to free people from the omnipresence of local government, officials’ interference in our lives, and the expansion of the administration.
It is time to fight for everything, just as we fought eight years ago with Piotr Roman’s campaign team for change in the city. We won; I write “we” because I was also part of that campaign team. However, it later turned out that our new, dreamed-of mayor was no longer the same person, and his ideas for Bolesławiec largely consisted of expanding municipal companies, competing with private business, and indebting the city.
We saw a man who can call the city’s previous mayor an idiot. A man whose subordinate can call an entrepreneur or councillor a brute without consequences. A man who discourages people, indebts the city in order to hold an investment festival before the election. I do not want such a mayor.
Today, many of those who supported the current mayor then have become his opponents. Too many for this to be an accident, a matter of wounded ambitions, or simply a failure to participate in dividing up the post-election spoils.
I am a person who accomplishes in life what he sets out to do; I achieve goals instead of merely talking about them. Unlike local-government officials, my experience lies mainly in spending private, not public, money. I am effective and achieve what I fight for. What is important to me is that a group of friends and acquaintances believes in me and supports me out of sympathy, not for other reasons.
You know me as a co-creator of Gliniada, a participant in the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity and other initiatives, such as Teddy Bear Day. You know me as the person who demanded signs marking exits from and entrances to the motorway. You also know me as a councillor who, in Bolesławiec’s interest, has repeatedly argued at council sessions, among other things, about how to promote our city better and spend public money more sensibly. Finally, you know me as a creator, a mime.
Why do I have a chance?
I believe in the good sense of the people of Bolesławiec and the strength of my programme. I believe that Bolesławiec can promote itself through more than beer festivals and the fact that it shines at night. I believe that we do not have to be like Radiator Springs from the film “Cars,” dying after the motorway opened. I believe that we can genuinely, rather than only superficially, take care of our health, our young people, our sport and our culture.
I believe that local government can do more than drain residents’ wallets through taxes and put up more buildings and fountains.
Here, on this website, I will present further points of my programme. I believe you will consider them and accept them as your own. I believe that, just like me, you will recognize that it is worthwhile to take care of our city together and place it in the hands of its residents. Because the purpose of authority is to ensure that we have even pavements, safety and healthcare, and to help residents carry out their ideas for the city.
I am announcing my decision now because I did not want it to affect Gliniada in any way or for Gliniada to be treated as a political demonstration. I would probably gain as a candidate by turning Gliniada into my election rally, but I never wanted, and do not want, it to be a political affair.
In this local-government election, let us start fighting for everything; let us start fighting for Bolesławiec.
(ii report)