Elections of the President of the Republic of Poland

Zaprzysiężenie Prezydenta RP przed Zgromadzeniem Narodowym. Fot. Jakub Szymczuk/KPRP.

In August 2020, the current President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, was sworn in for his second term. The President delivered a speech in which I found at least two aspects intriguing.

Firstly, the newly elected President said: "Democracy in Poland is stronger than ever." I do not agree with that, because it is an unwritten fact that Poland has a semi-democratic system, or only a so-called partial democracy. It is therefore difficult to refer to something that does not exist, or exists only partially.

Secondly, the President noted: "I will be the President of Polish affairs, this was not just an election slogan, it is the guiding thought of my presidency". I did not fully understand this statement either. After all, any other possibility within the function of the President of the Republic of Poland is completely out of the question. Is there any other option in this position, except representing Polish affairs?

The office of the President of the Republic of Poland is not only an honour and the highest position in the state, but also includes duties that arise directly from the Constitution.

As part of these duties, he is the President of all Polish women and men – you cannot just accept some and reach out to others. In this function, you must stand above party and ideological divisions. For the President of the Republic of Poland, there should be no one side or the other. For him, there should be only one side: the Polish side. This is not about reaching out to those who did not elect him – you must perform this function with your arms stretched wide towards the entire society.

An irrefutable fact in Polish political reality is the unquestionable party dictatorship of the lower house of parliament, the Sejm. The president plays a marginal or marginalized role in the Polish political system and therefore certainly does not have the competences of the president of the USA or France. Nevertheless, this is a function that is still underestimated in Poland. The President of the Republic of Poland could do a lot for the development of Polish civil society, i.e. a society participating in the political and decision-making process - both at the national and local level. He has the appropriate prerogatives in this area, which are notoriously not used by successive Polish presidents. And that is a pity.

In the current presidential campaign in Poland, all candidates for this honorable position are competing with each other in ideas for improving the functionality of the Polish socio-political and economic system. But which of them calls for the initiation of a constitutional debate that would replace vague programmatic declarations, promises and wishful thinking? Which of them advocates changing the current undemocratic electoral law? And finally, which of them explains to voters what true democracy is?

We know from other sources that the leading political parties and their candidates for the office of the President of the Republic of Poland in Poland have not been up to the task of initiating the necessary and desirable legal changes in order to involve citizens in the decision-making process at the state and local levels. There is a specific gap here, which could and should be filled by the future President of the Republic of Poland, using his seemingly modest, but nevertheless sufficient, prerogatives. On the other hand, the current candidates for this highest office in the Polish State should first read the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, especially the provisions concerning the prerogatives of the President, before they start promising Polish women and men the proverbial "pie in the sky".