The question arises on its own. Trzaskowski of Civic Platform received 41.99% in Bolesławiec, while the independent Nawrocki received only 24.36%.
Despite such support for Civic Platform in the presidential election, Grzegorz Przybylski (Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland) lost to Piotr Roman, who declared himself a non-partisan local-government official, although his sympathies for Law and Justice are more than apparent.
On the one hand, we want the city to be managed by someone so closely associated with Law and Justice that when Nawrocki arrives in Bolesławiec with the PiS political elite, he is received at a local-government institution and at the town hall; on the other hand, in national elections we give Civic Platform such strong support.
What does this say about us in the context of yesterday's election for President of the Republic of Poland? The 6,633 people who voted for Piotr Roman in April 2023 are slightly more than the number of officials dependent on their employer, the Municipal Office.
Grzegorz Przybylski was not the ideal candidate, but he was considerably better than those previously proposed to us by Civic Platform in Bolesławiec. Cezariusz Rudyk won 3% of the vote in 2018, while Piotr Żak won 9% in 2014 (he was a candidate of Civic Platform and the Democratic Left Alliance).
We remember how, in 2024, Grzegorz Przybylski counted on the love of the people of Bolesławiec, believed in a second round and hoped that his father, Marshal Cezary Przybylski, would support him in it. However, he won only 20% of the vote. Piotr Roman achieved 50% and won in the first round.
Perhaps Grzegorz Przybylski was invisible in the city during the campaign and had no power in the local structures, which are still managed by Karol Stasik; perhaps he also ran a weak campaign under the slogan “maybe.” Yet the wind of change was blowing after the nationwide elections in October 2023—why did it not fill the sails of Civic Platform in Bolesławiec and its candidate?
What does this say about our elections? Do we really want change? Or perhaps we believe in it but do not make it happen? Do we wait for it to happen on its own? Did the local structures let us down, did the candidate himself, or is Piotr Roman simply a good mayor? Perhaps, then, President Nawrocki will be as good for Poland as Piotr Roman is for Bolesławiec?