Leszek Socha described in blunt terms the position Joanna Świder found herself in after the referendum in Nowogrodziec.
– It looks more or less like this—and I apologize for the comparison: when someone has diarrhea, they run to the toilet, but the toilet is locked. More or less in this situation is the mayor and whoever advises her at the moment, comments the head of VE-TO.
What happened in Nowogrodziec?
On June 15, 2025, a referendum was held in Nowogrodziec in which the municipality’s residents were to answer whether they wanted the Municipal Council recalled. A total of 11,424 municipality residents were eligible to participate. Only 2,477 people took part in the vote, representing a turnout of 21.68%.
The referendum was declared invalid because the legally required turnout threshold was not reached. Under the law, at least 3,173 people had to participate. More than 96% of those who took part in the vote wanted the Municipal Council recalled.
Leszek Socha’s comment
According to Leszek Socha, for nearly a decade Joanna Świder and her political circle had fought for the mayor’s office while seeking to restore the municipality’s dignity and ensure proper management of public funds. This fight was directed against the arrogance of those in power. Unfortunately, Socha comments, the situation changed after the election. By pushing aside her previous associates, the mayor brought about the current deadlock.
– Ten years of hard work and convincing people that change was necessary have gone to waste, says Leszek Socha. – Change is still very necessary, but at the moment we have a deadlock, and the solution was simple: audits, which we talked about throughout the campaign. If irregularities are alleged against the person in power, they simply have to be investigated. I called my colleague, now the mayor, shortly after she took office and asked: where are you starting these audits? She told me then that there was no need for them and that she would not expose the municipality’s budget to losses. The mayor has the documents we had collected over approximately 10 years, and she did not use them. Audits would have calmed the situation; either the prosecutor’s office would have become involved, or we would have apologized to the local authorities for being wrong—which is the norm in the civilized world. This is not a game, yet the mayor made a game of the entire municipality. That is not allowed! Things are worse than before. The mayor and her office have been ridiculed. People do not understand what is happening, and everything looks a little like an indecent game. There was no money for audits, but there was money for a referendum; after all, if the referendum had succeeded, more money would have had to be spent on new elections, Socha adds.
What next? The mayor’s recall?
The situation presented raises serious questions about the future management of the municipality.
– If the mayor does not receive a vote of confidence and approval of her discharge for a second time, her recall should be considered, Socha comments. – When a local authority head is recalled, an offer should immediately be made to another person with whom one will proceed to the referendum. We are not changing the mayor in order to elect the same incompetents who destroyed the municipality for many years. And I keep emphasizing that our mayors are not the people who actually manage the municipality. Mayor Joanna Świder knows exactly what theory we had on this subject—who manages the Nowogrodziec municipality. Her election to this position was supposed to change that. Unfortunately, we have sunk even deeper, concludes the head of VE-TO.