In an interview with Catholic Radio Maryja, the head of Law and Justice (PiS), Jarosław Kaczyński, assessed the chances of former Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in next year’s presidential election, casting serious doubt on his candidacy. Despite acknowledging Morawiecki’s strong position within the party and his support among certain factions, Kaczyński stated that the former prime minister’s track record as head of government makes him a vulnerable candidate.
“Morawiecki is easy to attack,” Kaczyński said. “His role as prime minister and the difficult decisions he’s had to make ensure he might reach the second round, but winning would be nothing short of a miracle.”
On the other hand, if due to some other miracle, the party was faced with the possibility of appointing a prime minister, it would undoubtedly be Morawiecki, he emphasized, dismissing internal party calls for his removal as “irrational.”
Speculation has been growing in Polish media about significant leadership changes within PiS during the party’s fall congress. Reports suggest that former Prime Minister Beata Szydło and former Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz could lose their vice-presidential roles.
Meanwhile, former Speaker of the Sejm, Ryszard Terlecki, reportedly lobbied Kaczyński to appoint Morawiecki as head of a new supreme council within the party, a position that would wield considerable influence. However, Kaczyński reportedly declined the request.
Among conservatives, many point out Morawiecki’s role in acceding to rule-of-law changes to the EU treaties in 2020, which was supposed to unlock billions in funding for Poland, but actually allowed the EU to weaponize so-called “rule of law” attacks from Brussels. These treaty changes have since allowed the EU to block billions to Hungary and Poland — although the EU dropped its funding freeze in Poland once the Donald Tusk government came to power.
Morawiecki is said to have played a key role in allowing Poland to agree to the treaty changes in exchange for the money, which turned out to be a fatal miscalculation.
