On Tuesday, the Confederation party’s Leadership Council confirmed via social media that Sławomir Mentzen would be their nominee for Poland’s upcoming presidential election.
Days earlier, Krzysztof Bosak, one of the Confederation’s co-leaders, had expressed his willingness to run in broader opposition primaries. However, if those primaries did not materialize, Bosak pledged his support for Mentzen as the party’s candidate.
Responding to the announcement, Mentzen expressed his gratitude, stating on social media, “I thank Krzysztof Bosak for his support. I calmly await the decision of the Confederation Leadership Council.”
Bosak’s initial push for broad-based primaries was in response to conservative commentators and academics who advocated for a joint opposition candidate capable of defeating left-liberal figures like Rafał Trzaskowski or Donald Tusk in the second round. However, with Law and Justice (PiS) showing little interest in such an initiative, Bosak signaled that if multiple opposition candidates entered the first round, he would advocate for Mentzen as the Confederation’s choice.
Bosak also explained why internal primaries within the Confederation were unnecessary this time. Although the 2020 primaries were a success, Bosak noted that the situation has changed, with only two main contenders — himself and Mentzen — rendering a new internal vote redundant.
“In months of discussions and analyzing the political landscape, we realized that primaries within just the Confederation wouldn’t add anything new. The choice was already clear between Sławomir Mentzen and me,” Bosak stated.
He added that the party wanted to avoid external influences impacting their candidate selection, emphasizing the desire for a genuinely internal process.
In the previous primaries, anyone could participate by paying a small fee and voting at one of the 16 provincial conventions, a process that lacked strict vetting of participants’ loyalty to the Confederation’s ideals.
