This will be an interesting battle. Kidawa-Błońska and Jaśkowiak launch their primary campaign

Candidates in the presidential primary elections in the main opposition party, Civic Platform, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska and Jacek Jaśkowiak launch the election campaign. On Thursday, they will visit Warmia and Mazury; on the following days, Kidawa-Błońska will visit, among others, Pomerania and Wielkopolska. Jaśkowiak’s team is still clarifying the plans.

The campaign will be crowned on 14 December with a national convention, where more than a thousand party delegates will indicate their favorite, who will face President Andrzej Duda in the spring of next year’s elections. According to the unofficial information, the former Prime Minister and honorary leader of the party, Donald Tusk, will be invited to the Platform convention. Both candidates - Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska and the Mayor of Poznań Jacek Jaśkowiak - already have their own election teams and a preliminary campaign schedule.

Until 13 December, Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska’s calendar is filled with meetings in all 16 regions with delegates who, in the primary elections on 14 December, will decide who will fight in the presidential campaign. We are fully aware that we have days and weeks of intensive work ahead of us; therefore we want to maximally involve the PO’s structures in building a large, active team

— Monika Wielichowska, Chief of Staff of Kidawa-Błońska, deputy to the Polish Press Agency, stressed in an interview with the Polish Press Agency.

By the end of this week, the Deputy Speaker of the Parliament is to visit five regions.

Significantly less is known about the plans of her rival Jacek Jaskowiak. His electoral staff members are still working on the programme of primary activities, which will have to be reconciled with the daily duties of the Mayor of Poznań. So far, Thursday’s visit to Olsztyn has been confirmed. According to the candidate’s media statements, he will present a left-wing agenda.

Tłum. K.J.