Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, leader of the Polish People’s Party (PSL), announced that he is willing to stand for president in next year’s presidential election.
Kosiniak-Kamysz said he wants to be the candidate for the whole center-right, calling on the Civic Platform (PO), the PSL’s ally in the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, to agree to a process of joint candidate selection.
Kosiniak-Kamysz’s PSL fared unexpectedly well in October’s parliamentary election, receiving 9 percent of the vote compared to its previous 5 percent.
Fresh from that success, the PSL leader addressed his party at the gathering of its national council in Wierzchosławice on Sunday, saying, “In order to win a presidential election it is not enough to be the candidate of just one party. A much broader alliance is needed.”
The PSL chief said that he was ready for the challenge that would entail building a “civic movement”. His party council backed him as the party’s candidate and called upon other opposition parties to agree on a joint method for selecting a primary candidate to represent them during the presidential vote next May.
