Czy Janusz Palikot ma szansę zmienić polską politykę?
In Krzysztof Gwizdała’s programme Janusz Palikot answers questions about what his “antiparty” is, what kind of people will find a place in it, and whether it will be possible to find people who do not want to benefit from belonging to a political party.
Janusz Palikot presented his Movement’s demands to more than one hundred people who came to the meeting. Although he criticised Civic Platform, he supported Donald Tusk’s method of taking small steps. The politician wants many serious changes. One of them would be the allocation of not one but two and a half percent of tax to public-benefit organisations, political parties and religious associations. He would like taxpayers to decide whether to give their money to the Church or to a selected political party. In this simple way, citizens would regain their agency. Parties would change their attitude towards voters, and politics would disappear from the Catholic Church in Poland. – Which parish priest would then want to call on people to vote for a particular party? – Janusz Palikot explained the essence of the changes.
He also spoke about the sins of Polish politicians. – They buy voters with promises and then deliver nothing. Every governing party plays cat and mouse with citizens. It introduces reforms important to people, such as the recent change to the pension system, and instead of subjecting them to discussion, hides behind the smokescreen of Lech Kaczyński’s burial.
Janusz Palikot came to the meeting carrying a net bag of potatoes. The potatoes symbolised the buying of votes by the Civic Platform candidate for president in Wałbrzych. The prosecutor’s office is investigating allegations that poorer residents of Wałbrzych were offered potatoes, onions or a bottle of wine in exchange for their vote in the last election. – The Support Movement will hand out potatoes to people in protest under the slogan: “You don’t have to sell your vote to Civic Platform. We will give you potatoes for free” – Palikot said.
The politician encouraged his supporters to share their impressions from the meeting with others, pick up the phone and tell them that there is another option for running the country. – Winning an election is not the difficult part. What matters is that I can come here after I gain power without fear that you will start throwing these potatoes at me – Janusz Palikot said at the end of the meeting.
(report by Grażyna Hanaf)