PES President Sergei Stanishev said:
“President Duda and his party Law and Justice (PiS) are gambling with Polish people’s lives. Leaders of the ruling party in Poland are putting their personal political agenda before public health and before their own voters’ wellbeing. If they care about Poland, they must postpone the election until the current health hazard posed by COVID-19 is under control.”
The PES is deeply concerned that the leader of Law and Justice, Jarosław Kaczyński, and the incumbent President Andrzej Duda are in a full-scale campaign – they have co-opted frequent media appearances on COVID-19 into their media strategy for the election. At the same time, opposition candidates have limited media access and their campaigns are suffering because of quarantine measures.
Sergei Stanishev said:
“President Duda is playing with marked cards. He wants to run an election without a campaign or a visible opposition, and he is actively discouraging participation. Democracy is not just about going to the ballot box. Democracy is also very much about the conditions in which people vote. We will not accept this new brand of Corona-authoritarianism.”
