If Polish political parties want to improve their ratings they should change their leaders, according to an opinion poll conducted by the nation-wide daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
According to the survey, the Law and Justice Party (PiS) could gain up to seven percentage points if Zbigniew Ziobro took over as head of the party instead of current head Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Ziobro, former Justice Minister from Krakow, would likely be able to win over voters of all main parties, including the majority party Civic Platform (PO), the Polish Peasants Party (PSL) and the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD).
“Seemingly strong support for Ziobro shows that voters prefer the ‘old’ PiS - more populist and authoritarian,” claims sociologist Prof. Jacek Raciborski.
The reason why Ziobro is so popular may also stem from the fact that Poles are tired of J. Kaczynski, comments Rafal Grupinski from the Prime Minister’s Chancellery.
Not just PiS, but also Polish left-wing parties would profit if they joined forces under the rule of Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, claims the poll. Such an alliance would attract three times as many voters as the biggest left-wing party Democratic Left Alliance (SLD).
According to Wojciech Olejniczak, former head of SLD, the Polish left has great potential which is not properly used.
“The Polish left-wing electorate is rather strong but people do not want to vote on small parties or groups,” says Olejniczak.
At the same time, Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, former Foreign Minister, is perceived by many as a stable and very ‘professional’ politician – one of the few on the Polish political stage. The poll shows that if he headed the leftists, their ratings would go up by twelve percentage points.
A swap of leaders in Civic Platform (PO) would also bring a moderate change in the voting results for the party. Current PM Donald Tusk is still very popular among the voters but if he were to be replaced by his deputy, Grzegorz Schetyna, the ruling PO would lose only three percentage points and continue to be a dominant Polish party, shows the poll.
This means that Tusk could run for President in 2010 and leave the post of PM to Schetyna without worrying that Civic Platform would ‘disappear’ from political stage.
Although the results of the survey are clear, showing that without a personnel revolution Polish parties will not win the hearts of their voters, it seems that they are not willing to introduce any dramatic changes. So far the parties have altered their image only on the local, not global level. In order to attract voters to ballot boxes during the coming Euroepan Parliament elections in June, they chose front-line politicians for their candidates. In the southern city of Krakow, for instance, voters can expect a serious clash between such political giants as Zbigniew Ziobro (PiS), Joanna Senyszyn (SLD) and Róża Thun (PO). (mg/mmj)