Rafał Trzaskowski took the part-time job offer seriously in the capital (although it is difficult to consider that he would be full-time earlier), and announced the creation of a social movement – a new “Solidarity”:
We must create power, we must create a real civic movementthat will allow us to win the next election, will allow us all this energy that we woke up together to sustain for many months so that we could win the next election.
He assured him that “he would do absolutely everything so that we could continue to meet, that we could continue to fight for Poland to look completely different.”
Well, bold declaration. Because, after all, the opposition has already attempted to build something like that – right after the 2015 elections. Democracy Defense Committee he quickly came to power, one that seemed to overshadow the opposition parties. Its leaders thought they were well on their way to overthrowing the government. Is it hardly surprising if they called 200,000 demonstrations? Later, however, what had to happen happened: conflicts began, people raised to a pedestal turned out to have not the most beautiful biographies, and Mateusz Kijowski was tempted by small gifts. There is no trace of power today.
It will be similar now – assuming that Trzaskowski will actually build something. Because under normal, democratic conditions such social movements are not able to change the course of history. Yes, they would have a chance of success if the large social masses really thought that there was a dictatorship in the country, but this does not seem to be the case. Since “Wyborcza” and its acolytes have not managed to convince Poles in the last five years, they will not be able to do it now. The second parliamentary victory and reelection of Andrzej Duda constitute a powerful democratic mandate. The mandate cannot be called into question.
Moreover, in normal democracy such parapolitical movements are often more of a burden than an asset. Sławomir Neumann once said about it on tapes from Tczew:
The CODE is nothing, it is not a force, an annex. There is no CODE, the CODE is nothing. (…) These people from this CODE, without organization, are nothing. You can have a thousand people, without organization they are nothing. You can have a hundred soldiers who are, ka, spartans and … they are throwing this thousand into space. Common movements in Poland ended with a drink at the end of the Seym, … As the mercenary army of the opponent went, they pushed them home. This is the CODE. (…) Don’t believe in such things. Those people at the end – see who makes sense and take him personally. This is the method. The bosses are no strength. They’ll be great. Do you know what? To take cells and film (…). They’re good for it, nothing else, really.
If Trzaskowski wants to build a social movement, it means that he wants to take over the Civic Platform with it. This will be the main purpose of this new CODE. If it rises because in my opinion it won’t rise.
And one more thing. Does Trzaskowski’s election result give him a mandate for such actions? After all, in the second round of presidential elections, each KO candidate would have gathered about as much, maybe a point less, maybe half a point more. This is the distribution of power in modern Poland. The correct measure of Trzaskowski’s strength should be the result of the first round – 30 percent. A result that did not impress. The result is at most fairly decent, but certainly not sensational.
Importantly, subsequent opinion polls show that after Trzaskowski’s supposedly great triumph The platform is where it was before the election – at 24% That’s what Trzaskowski’s attraction power means.
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