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In practice, the Polish political system is a two-party system, although there are many political formations. This duopoly became particularly evident after the United Right came to power, headed by Law and Justice in 2015. Opposition parties, from the Civic Platform, through the PSL and SLD, and after the last elections also the Confederation, all these groups form a block, popularly known as the anti-PIS. Regardless of the provenance of these parties, all of them declare one goal: to remove the Law and Justice party from power, so that things return to the way they were.

And so far in Poland it has been the case that the same formation born at the Round Table, pretending to be liberals (PO) and social democrats (SLD), always supported by PSL, i.e. a party of progressive Christian Democrats from the countryside, ruled alternately in the Third Polish Republic. In short, these were and are formations of the Third Polish Republic establishment with post-communist roots more or less evident. As they vividly recalled the former owners of the People's Republic of Poland, who in the Third Polish republic granted themselves exclusivity to exercise power, not only political. The last elections to the European Parliament confirmed this post-communist masquerade in Poland. The electoral lists of the European Coalition managed by the head of PO, Grzegorz Schetyna included old post-communists whose careers began during the communist era. In SLD and PSL, a similar processes of taking over politicians from PO or the progressive rainbow "Spring" party took place. We can say that they were guided by a common slogan: the party is not important, the common goal is important, i.e. removing the greatest threat to the post-communist system in Poland from power, i.e. Law and Justice.

This should be borne in mind when analysing the run-up to the Polish presidential election campaign. On one side is President Andrzej Duda, who is fighting for re-election, supported by Law and Justice and the entire United Right. And on the side of the opponents we have a collection of candidates for the total opposition to the government. The presidential elections are still six months away, but the intensification on the side of the opposition is such that one can’t help but utter the chorus of The Internationale:

’Tis the final conflict
Let each stand in his place
The International Union
Shall be the human race.

Amongst the opposition, the presidential elections are presented as the last chance to break the dominance of the second term of office of the United Right. These hopes were strengthened after the takeover of the Senate, i.e. the appointment of a senator from PO as the Speaker. This provides an opportunity to slow down the legislative process in parliament, but no more. The so-called Senate veto can be rejected by a simple majority in the Sejm, which is held by Law and Justice. If the total opposition wins the presidential elections, the power of the United Right could disintegrate. The President has the power to veto laws passed by the parliamentary majority. To reject this veto, 3/5 of the votes in parliament are needed, and the ruling United Right does not have such a majority. In this situation, it would be necessary to agree at least with part of the opposition in order to push through a vetoed law. This is a difficult process and in the eyes of the voters the ruling party is seen as being hostage to the total opposition. All in all, the victory of any opposition presidential candidate would herald the paralysis of power. In this situation, the best solution would be to speed up parliamentary elections. However, would the opposition president, supported by the parliamentary opposition, go for such a solution in a situation where the Law and Justice party and the entire United are supported by more than 40% of the society? In my opinion, the total opposition together with its president would apply the process of grilling the Law and Justice party, demonstrating the inability of those in power to govern, until support for the good change declines. So there is much to fight for in the upcoming presidential elections, for “The International Union” to “be the human race”.

I am returning to the chorus of the communist anthem not for old comrades nor new comrades dressed up as liberal-left Europeans to shed a tear. I’ve repeated the Internationale chorus to remind you that behind beautiful words were cruel communist crimes, famine and the destruction of the so-called class enemies. As we know, the Communists murdered for the good of humanity, and only the Nazis committed crimes in the name of a possessed ideology. I recall these fundamental truths about Europe's totalitarian criminal systems, because the total opposition in Poland draws its full weight from the treasury of the language of communist propaganda. The human family is to restore democracy, the rule of law, human rights, free courts, freedom of speech, etc. in Poland. And with such a baggage of lofty, yet empty platitudes, the opposition Polish United Restitution Party of the Third Polish republic heads for the elections. There is only one problem for the opposition: there is no strong counter-candidate for President Duda, who is running for re-election. The potential candidate of PO, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, is a new Bronisław Komorowski in a skirt. Her counter-candidate is Jacek Jaśkowiak, the Mayor of Poznań, whose intellectual potential is shallow, to say the least.  And this is the entire pool of candidates from the largest opposition party. PSL President Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who was the first to announce his candidacy for the presidential elections, suffers from the syndrome of an ambitious class leader who constantly speaks out in platitudes about national consensus and reconciliation. The three-party left, composed of the Democratic Left Alliance, Spring and Together, announced that the head of this third component, Adrian Zandberg, will be their presidential candidate. SLD has money for the campaign in the guise of comrade Czarzasty. I do not think that the old post-communists from the Democratic Left Alliance will generously finance Zandberg's campaign with a view of him achieving a significant result. This is not in the interest of old comrades from the Democratic Left Alliance. In case of an emergency, there is always Barbara Nowacka, the so-called left-wing conscience of PO, who is ready to become a candidate for the president of the Republic of Poland. The Confederacy, that is to say, the right-wing, kindly eyeing Russia, affected by Americanophobia and NATO-aversion, announced that it will put forward several presidential candidates. A celebrity show host and a candidate of the so-called "Open Church", i.e. Szymon Hołownia, may join this colourful assemblage. If this happens, it will be another attempt to put into practice the Marxist doctrine of dialectics about transforming quantity into quality. The total opposition wants to put up as many counter-candidates as possible in the first round, representing all options, from the extreme left to the dogmatic right. The point is to fragment the electorate in such a way that Andrzej Duda enters the second round with a slight advantage over the counter-candidates. He will win, as indicated by polls, but the cumulative votes of the opposition candidates will be almost equal to the result of Duda. The main goal will be to prevent Andrzej Duda from winning the elections in the first round. There will be hope, in accordance with the doctrine of quantity and quality, that the collected votes of opposition candidates will flow in the second round to Duda’s total counter-candidate. But who will that be? Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, Włodzimierz Kosiniak-Kamysz, Szymon Hołownia or maybe Adrian Zandberg? All of them guarantee a return Third Polish Republic system, security for post-communists and the preservation of their influence in the economy, and above all in the justice system. The degenerate and depraved system of the Third Polish Republic feeds on hopes of  Andrzej Duda's defeat in the upcoming elections, because this is the last chance to remove the Law and Justice party from power. These are false hopes, because even the largest and most varied pack of presidential candidates will not change into a quality that will give Andrzej Duda's counter-candidate a chance to win. I know, therefore, that only the first two lines  of the Internationale will come true for the post-communists of the total opposition:

’Tis the final conflict
Let each stand in his place.

And may this happen in the next elections. As we see, we are facing simple complications in the presidential elections.

Marek Król