Elzbieta Jakubiak (left) with Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska; photo - PAP

Former members of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, including MPs Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska,  Elzbieta Jakubiak and Pawel Poncyljusz announced today that they had formed a new political association, called “Poland is the most important”.

Joined by MEPs Adam Bielan and Michal Kaminski, the politicians laid out what many observers have called a ‘PiS-lite’ version of politics and the embryo of a new party

At a press conference this afternoon, Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska underlined what she sees as the incompetence of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

She said that after three years of the current Civic Platform government Poland has slipped behind other nations in Europe in many ways.

“We have the most expensive gas and electricity in the EU,” Kluzik-Rostkowska claimed. “Only in Turkey - if that country can be considered part of Europe - are there less kindergarten places,” she added.

PM Tusk’s three years have amounted to a “missed opportunity,” said the former chief of Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s presidential election campaign, which, she reminded, gained the support of eight million Poles. That’s why the name of the new association - ‘Poland is the most important’ - is the same as Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s campaign slogan, she said.

Consensus and dialogue

She also declared three areas where Polish politics needs dialogue and consensus, including a pro-family policy, a demographic development program and a vision of Poland internationally.

Kluzik-Rostowski, seen as the leader of the new ‘association’ made frequent reference to the late President Lech Kaczynski but failed to mention his twin brother, Jaroslaw.

“This vision of our place in the world, as presented by President Lech Kaczynski, has now been mindlessly squandered,” said Kluzik-Rostkowska, who along with Elzbieta Jakubiak was dismissed from Law and Justice after voicing criticism of the leadership of Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

“We could see this vision when [President Lech Kaczynski] went to Tbilisi [during the Russian-Georgian war] and he effectively united countries in our region in the name of international justice and respect for the rights of nations to decide their own fate. We were proud of Poland, then,” she declared.

Supporters

Other Law and Justice MPs supportive of the new group are MEP Marek Migalski - who was also dismissed from Law and Justice a few weeks ago - plus MEP Pawel Kowal and MP Tomasz Dudzinski.

Dudzinski told the TVN 24 news station that he will announce whether he will leave the Law and Justice party after the local elections on 21 November and 5 December.

“In contrast to the Law and Justice leadership I do not want to impede the election campaign,” he said.

Pawel Poncyljusz, who announced his intention to leave Law and Justice yesterday, said that the current, corrosive atmosphere in Polish politics is not serving the country well.

“Today we have shown that there are many things to do and the atmosphere that prevails between the two largest parties [Civic Platform and Law and Justice] will not solve our problems. Therefore, we give a signal to Poles who believed in the slogan that Poland is the most important,” he told reporters. (pg)