The Polish elections to the European
Parliament in 2014 as shown in the
Polish press
Rocznik Integracji Europejskiej nr 8, 317-331
2014
ADAM
BARABASZ
PoznańDOI: 10.14746/rie.2014.8.22
The Polish elections to the European Parliament
in 2014 as shown in the Polish press
Poland has alreadyhadthree European elections since itsaccessiontothe European Union. On May 25, 2014, the Polish public elected fifty-one membersof the European Parliament (MEPs) for another term of five years. Similarly to the 2004 and 2009 elec
tions, the main concern ofPolish journalists was voter turnout. This time, the turnout
amounted to 23.84% giving theleadingposition to the Civic Platform (PO)party,which won32.13% of votes. Law and Justice (PiS) came secondwith 31.78% votes, followed
by the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD -9.44%), the New Right (NP - 7.15%) and the
Polish People’s Party (PSL - 6.8%).United Poland,the coalition EuropaPlus-Your
Move (EPTR), Poland Together,the National Movement,theGreen PartyofPoland and
the Direct Democracy Election Committee failed to achieve the electionthreshold of5%. The mostinfluential Polish newspapers andmagazines were assessingthe strategy of differentparties’ electioncommittees throughout the entire campaign. New faces of
the campaign, alongside the profiles of those MEPs who were battling to get to Strasbourg onceagain, werepresented. The style of thecampaign,thelanguage of TV election spotsandthe meansthe parties used in ordertogenerate social supportwere
stressed. Onceagain, Polish journalistshighlighted the paradox of domestic issues be ing discussed in order to win a seat in the EP and of treating these elections as awarm-up to thenational elections.1
1 Cf.: A. Barabasz, Prasa polska o wyborach do Parlamentu Europejskiego w 2009 roku,
“Rocznik Integracji Europejskiej” 2009, no 3.
2 This is an allusion to the first Polish website dedicated to celebrities “Pudelek” (poodle) (trans lator’s note).
Before the elections
The EP electioncampaign started in earlyApril 2014. Initially, thePolish press did
not feature manyprofiles of candidates for seatsin Strasbourg. As theelections drew nearer,however, the mostpopularnewspapers and magazines began topublish com
mentaries on the election strategies of the different party committees and presented
candidate profiles.
At that time, the “Wprost”weekly published an interesting articlepresenting new
faces of the campaign proposed bydifferent parties as candidates for MEPs.
In her article Pudelek Europejski [European Poodle12], Katarzyna Nowicka pre
the driving force behind differentpolitical parties and attract votersreluctant to take part in the European elections. Although the journalist believed these candidateswere not really likelyto win Europeanmandates, they performedimportant tasks for their parties: “they were toplay the role ofa‘hare’ driving people to thepolls” (Nowicka, 2014). Wojciech Jabłoński,anexpert on politicalmarketing, alsoassessed these tactics
and he did not believe that the celebritieswouldbe successful in the European elec tions:“they are placed solow on theballots that theydo not stand a chance of winning aseat in Brussels” (ibid.). Sociologist and political commentator, Jarosław Flis, spoke
in asimilar vein: “most celebritiesdo not standa chance of scoring a good result; either
they do not realize it, or theyare notawareof the mechanisms ruling politics, orthey are
driven by vanity” (ibid.). Theauthor ofthis articleconsidered the followingto bethe most important faces in this campaign: the Presidentof Warta Poznańfootball club Izabela Łukomska-Pyżalska, volleyball player Michał Bąkiewicz, actress Weronika
Marczuk, swimmer Otylia Jędrzejczak, football player Maciej Żurawski, handball
trainerBogdan Wenta and boxer TomaszAdamek.
On April 22, 2014, the newspaper “Rzeczpospolita”, which tends to sympathize
withthe Polish right wing, presentedtheleading Polish MEPs who distinguished them selves in the 2009-2914 parliamentaryterm. “Rzeczpospolita” journalists putthefol
lowing MEPs on the podium: Konrad Szymański (PiS), Danuta Hiibner(PO), Jacek
Saryusz-Wolski (PO), Jan Olbrycht (PO), Jerzy Buzek (PO), SidoniaJędrzejewska
(PO),Paweł Kowal (United Poland),Bogusław Sonik(PO), RafałTrzaskowski (PO),
LenaKolarska-Bobińska (PO)and Róża Thun(PO). Accordingto “Rzeczpospolita”
journalist Anna Słojewska, although these MEPs have different ideological origins and
representdifferent politicalparties, theyhave similar propertiesallowing them to work successfully in theEP:diligence, conciliatoriness, as well as the ability to buildcoali
tionsacross political and national divisions (Słojewska, 2014). The author also stressed that inthe upcoming campaign thecandidates would be focusing onissuesof the ut
mostimportance for the future of the EuropeanUnion and of Poland, thatis energy se curity, climate policy, regional policy, the sensible spending of tens of billions of euro
allocated to Poland,Eastern policy and thepolicy response totheaggressivebehavior
ofRussia (ibid.).
Writingfor “Przegląd”, Jerzy Domański addressed the issue of candidate qualifi
cationsand observed that, inthese difficult and unpredictable times, we should send
a team possessing post-national skills to Strasbourg. He suggested thatthosewho
“confused Brussels withlocal or national elections” be given a red card (Domański, 2014a).
OnApril 24,Marcin Pieńkowski analyzed the election strategy of PiS in “Rzecz
pospolita”,andput Jarosław Kaczyhski’s cards onthe table ina game ofelectionpoker.
Inthe article TrikiPiSz kandydatami [PiS’s tricks withcandidates], he noted that the PiS electionlistsbeganwithless well-known politicians, which followed from theles son learned in the former Europeanelectionsin 2009, when, due to mistakes by the
party, fifteen MEPs were elected, only seven of whom were still members of PiS (Pieńkowski,2014).Therefore, in theseelections,Jarosław Kaczyński decided to count
on loyal and trusted politicians, such as Anna Fotyga, Karol Karski and Ryszard Czarnecki. The remaining PiS candidates, although listed on the remote places on the
ballots, andnot seemingto stand a chance ofcoming first,werefrequently runningthe
campaignon their own and with their ownmoney, afraid of the headquarters’ disap provalif they did not.Inthe opinion of political marketing expert, Błażej Pobożny of WarsawUniversity,this move allowedJarosław Kaczynskito “minimize the risk of
peoplequitting theparty after theelections, while atthesame timeboasting thathe was
sending academics to the European Parliament”(ibid.).
One monthbefore the elections, “Rzeczpospolita” warned that the turnout in theap proachingelections could below. In the journalists’ opinions, this was due to voter ig norance and thearrogance of thepoliticians. In his article Wyborcyniewidzą kampanii
[Voters don’tsee thecampaign], Paweł Majewski observed that modem techniques to
influencevoters were failing. Election spots postedonthe internet in practicedid not reach voters and could not provide information about theviews of different parties and
candidates. He referred to an assessment made by expert on politicalanalysis,Maria Nowina-Konopka, who said that “people forward election spots to one another as ajoke, rather thanas part of an election campaign”(Majewski, 2014 a). She also ob served that politicians werenot able to take advantage of the internet as“the spots look like commercials in the traditional media. They are not interactive” (ibid.). The “Rzeczpospolita” journalist listed the following spotsas those most frequently watched for entertainment: Anna Kubica from ETPR impersonatingjournalist Anna Jawo-
rowicz, Ryszard Kalisz fromthe same party, who pretended to be counting the votes
cast for himself, deducting100 cmfrom his waist measurement, and another represen tative ofEPTR, Anna Słomkowska, who outright refused to discuss the Crimean issue. In Majewski’s opinion, therange ofonline campaignswashighly limited and voters were still accustomedto the traditional TV coverage of theelection campaign and can
didates’ views.
Polish journalists frequently referred to thevery highsalaries of MEPs thatgreatly
exceed those ofmembers of the Polish Parliament, suggesting that this wasone of the
main motivationsfor MEPcandidates. Some journalists went as far asto suggestthat
PolishMEPs had developed a special, unofficial systemof making a profit, called ‘pressing Brussels sprouts’, and encompassing arange of tricksused whencalculating
dailyallowances, travel expenses and hotels(Stankiewicz,2014). Andrzej Stankiewicz
from “Rzeczpospolita” presented alist ofMEPs fromthe preceding term who got con siderably richer owingtotheir parliamentary status. He also remarkedthatthe closer
the elections drew,the more theywere trying to ‘impoverish’ themselves in their asset
declarations.
Thecampaign wasinfull swing inearly May. Different politicalgroups werebat
tling for votes indifferent ways. They frequently applied negative campaign mecha
nisms.
“GazetaWyborcza” discussed the crude electioncampaign of the anti-European NationalMovement. AgataKondzińska from “GazetaWyborcza” criticized thecon
duct of theparty’s activists, who on May 1 gathered in front of the offices of theEuro pean Commission in Warsaw to trample onthe Union flag and spiton it. The author
observed thatits political platform, promoted by themembers of theAll-Polish Youth
and theNationalRadical Camp, stressed the following:
- to fight European leftism,so as to protectthefamily, and by extension the traditional
roles of men and women;
- to take care ofPoles abroad, for instance to ensure respect for the rights of thePolish minority inLithuania;
- to stop further reductions of CO2 emissions by the EU,as it is expensive for thePol ish economy;
- tointroducethePolish historical narrativeto the international arena to stoptalk about Polish deathcamps (Kondzihska, 2014).
Inthe author’s opinion, theNational Movement did notstand areal chanceto ex
ceed the election threshold, since, according to allthepolls,its support was withinthe
brackets of 1-2%. Nevertheless, the Movementdid not give up its fight for Strasbourg
and was taking serious steps to attract public attention. It was seeking voters among
football fans and in radical circles,which in Kondzinska’s opinion could bear on thefi
nal results ofother right-wing parties in Poland.
Less than three weeksprior to theelections,“Gazeta Wyborcza” published an inter
viewwith PawełCiacek from Millward BrownPolska, acompanydealingwithsocial
surveys and studies in communications, on theEP election campaignofdifferent politi cal parties. This sociologist noted that, as wasthe case in the past, the European elec
tions didnotarouse much social interestand itwas quite difficult to indicatewho would bethe winner: “although we canseethe candidates, and the role of the ‘engines’ -the number ones on thelists- is significant, this doesnot look like a battle for ultimate vic
tory. It is generally not easy to determine who won these elections.The electoral law
does notmake it any easier, andtranslating a vote cast intothemechanism of indicating a givenrepresentative isparticularlyblurred” (Kublik, 2014). In the sameinterview, Ciacek indicated the best slogan inthiselection, which inhis opinion was “Choose a deputy whothinks thewayYOUdo!” This sloganwas intended to stimulatehigher
voter turnout andattract tothepolls the disenchanted electorate who had reluctantly been taking part inEuropean electionssince 2004.
In thesame period, “Rzeczpospolita” did not forecast success for EPTR.In the arti cle Wposzukiwaniu kozła ofiarnego [Looking for a scapegoat],ajournalist of “Rzecz
pospolita”,Eliza Olczyk stressedthe disputes and criticism betweenboth Aleksander Kwaśniewski andJanusz Palikot.The former Polishex-Presidentaccused the latter,
the leader ofEPTR, of beinganti-clerical, which was actually harmful totheparty’s
interests at a time when John Paul IIwas finally being canonized,which coincided
withthe Europeanelections campaign andin which polls indicatedthat this event was particularly important for 98% ofPoles. Janusz Palikot in turn, reproached
AleksanderKwaśniewski forgoingto Rometotake part in the canonization along
side opponents from the ruling party. In thejournalist’s opinion, this was a lead in to
asettlingof accounts afterthe elections, as a majority of polls on the electionprefer
ences ofPoles did not forecast EPTR as able to exceed the 5% electionthreshold
(Olczyk, 2014).
The bristly friendship between Kwaśniewski and Palikotwas also commented upon
in other magazines. Anna Pawlicka from“Newsweek” said that the visitto Rome was
inspired by President Bronislaw Komorowski and ex-President Lech Wałęsa, and it wouldhave been simply inappropriate forKwaśniewski not to accept the invitation.
The journalistwas of the opinion that the leader of EPTR expected Kwaśniewski to make sacrifices and be heroic in thefight against theChurch, and thathemust havemis calculated (Pawlicka, 2014a). Agnieszka Burzyńska and Anna Gilewska observed in “Wprost” thatthe nearerthe elections drew, the more Aleksander Kwaśniewski“was
becominga burden forPalikoton account of his gas business ventures in Ukraine” (Burzyńska, 2014).
Two weeks before the electionsto the EP,the journalists from“Rzeczpospolita” argued that, similar to theprevious European campaigns(in2004 and 2009),the leit motif of the election activities of politicians were Polish problems rather than Euro
pean issues. Therefore,inthe second half of the campaign, the two leading political
parties in Poland,PO and PiS, set off tomeet their electorates and ensure their votes by various means. According to Paweł Majewski from “Rzeczpospolita”, PiS visited
its traditional strongholds: the regions of Mazowsze,Podkarpacieand Lubelszczyzna
inorder tomobilize their castiron electorate. Giventhe Ukrainian crisis,the POparty
in turn stressed theissuesof state security, therefore “Donald Tusk hadbreakfast with a war veteran and celebratedwithfirefighters [...]PO isalso going to take advantage
of such events as theDays withthePolish Army, organizedin Mińsk Mazowiecki” (Majewski, 2014b).
Professor Kazimierz Kik fromJan Kochanowski UniversityinKielce stressed the
differentmotivationsof the leaders of the main political partiesin Polandthat were emerging during the EPelection campaign,althoughthey were frequentlynotrelated to
those elections. In his opinion, an election victory for PO and Prime MinisterDonald
Tusk would mean them obtaining significantposts in EUinstitutions,primarily thanks to the party’s membership of the largest group in theEP -the EuropeanPeople’s Party. Therefore,PO’s election listsopened with the names of present andformer members of Polish parliament, MEPs and ministers. According to Kik, theleader of themain oppo sition party, PiS, was making anutterlydifferent assumption.The most important ob jective for him isto “take away thepoliticalinitiativefrom POon the national arena”
(Kik, 2014). He was going to attainthis objective filling the PiS lists mainly with
trusted andloyal politicianswithout greaterambitions, because hewas treating the Eu
ropeanelections as auseful testbeforethe ultimate goal of winningthe parliamentary
elections in Poland(ibid.). The DeputyChairman of thePoliticalScienceCommittee of
the National Academy of Sciencesstressed thatfor the leaders of the otherpolitical par
ties standing for the EP, namely PSL, SLDand EPTR, the result of the electionstruggle formandates tothe EPmeant “to be ornot to be” on thepoliticalarena.Other election
committees, such as the Congress of the New Right, wanted to use the elections onMay 25, first and foremost, toraise their profile before the parliamentary elections inPoland
thefollowingyear. In his extensive article,Kazimierz Kik analyzed the achievements of our MEPsin the 2009-2014 term, also outlining the profile of a desirableEuropean ‘co-legislator’ asa highly competent and diligent person.In hisopinion, such anindi
vidualshould be characterizedby high academic qualificationsin an area related to leg islation and establishing EU institutions (sociology, economics, law and political
science). He also suggested thatfewPolish MEPs were ready to meetthesecriteria, and
the EPwas merely a ‘waiting room’for them beforebettertimes arrived, as well as a source of considerable income.
Tomasz Sommer, writing for “Najwyższy Czas” - a publication of Janusz
Kor-win-Mikke’s3 party - forecasted thatthe New Right would exceed the election thresh
old, thereby winning the 2014 European elections, in his opinion. He also observed that JanuszKorwin-Mikkewouldsoonbecome a star of the new EP, since Nigel Farage as
well Godfrey Bloom were “paleas a sheet” next to him(Sommer, 2014a). Further on, heargued that the successof the New Right would beensured by the freshness effect and their permanent presence in the mediawithout being accountable for any political
decisions.
3 Janusz Korwin-Mikke is a founder and leader of the New Right and Member of the European Parliament, elected in 2014 (translator’s note).
4 At the time of the poll, Donald Tusk was Prime Minister of Poland and the leader of the ruling PO party (translator’s note).
JoannaLichocka from“Gazeta Polska”triedto mobilize the right-wing electorate to take part in the European elections. In herarticleSzansą PiS-ufrekwencja imłodzi
[PiS’s chanceslie in the young and a high turnout],the journalist argued that if the op positionfailed toachieve a good result in theseelections, Donald Tuskand PO could continueto rule in the years to come.Theauthorparticularly emphasized thepsycho
logicaloutcomes of a potentialvictory of the“quarreling and emotionally wobbly [rul ing coalition] for whom these elections are of particular importance” (Lichocka, 2014a). Further on, theauthor statedthatPO was trying to use the campaign to distract
from corruptionallegations. Additionally, they reportedlyillegally used schools and
public administration buildings for election purposes thereby breaching electoral pro tocol (ibid.).
All theleading Polishnewspapers andmagazinesstressed the lack of a substantive and honest campaign. Journalists observedthat the election committees of thepolitical
parties appliedvarious social engineeringinstruments to drumup votes and took ad vantage of negative campaign elements.
On May7, “Zielony Sztandar” published information about a new election spot pre
sented by AdamJarubas,the head of thePSLelection committee. The commercial fo cused on the issue of Poland’s security. It stressed that national security not only
involved grenades,tanks and aircraft, but also the lack of the necessity to leave the
country to look for jobsabroad and theability to make your dreams come true here. Ac
cording to PSL, securityalso encompassed“amodem countrysidewhich yields bread, vegetables and fruit from fertile fields and fragrant orchards” (No author, “Zielony Sztandar”,2014).
At the same time, Jakub Halcewicz-Pleskaczewski from“GazetaWyborcza” ob served that inthe struggle for votes, the competing partiesmainly employednegative campaigns and their leaders did not care much for thelow level of knowledge aboutthe EP among Polish society. The journalist referred to a poll conducted by TNS Polska whichshowed that 40% of therespondents did not know that MEPs are elected in gen eral elections, and 69% were unable toname a singlePolish MEP. There were also
respondentswhomentioned Donald Tusk4 asan MEP.Such blatantignorance as con
cerns EU institutions motivated the journalist to try to change this situation. He directed
to make Polish society aware of the standpoints ofPolish candidates for the EP
(Halcewicz-Pleskaczewski, 2014).
In the same newspaper, Paweł Wroński published the article Kaczyński stracił szansębybyć przyzwoitym [Kaczyński haslost thechance to be decent],where he noted that as the Europeanelections drew nearer, the PiS campaign was becoming increas ingly aggressive.He referred to the statementof PiS deputyKrystyna Pawłowicz, who spoke about Professor Władysław Bartoszewski as a low-classshepherd, and to the
President of PiS, Jarosław Kaczyński, whoaccused Professor Bartoszewski,aformer prisoner ofAuschwitz and a fighter in theWarsawUprising, ofhaving received the fi nancial Prize of Robert Bosch for his achievements in shaping Polish-German rela tions. Inthe opinion of Kaczyński, Professor Bartoszewskidefended the interests of
Germany while pretending tobeimpartial(Wroński, 2014). In Wroński’sopinion, PiS realizedthattheturnout in the electionswould be low, and by attacking Bartoszewski theparty was tryingto mobilize its infallible, castironelectorate.
On May9, 2014, “GazetaWyborcza” assessed the European election campaign
conducted by SLD. Inthe articleSLDumęczonyjakczarny koń [SLD exhausted as a dark horse], Agata Nowakowska notedthat after ex-Prime Minister Leszek Miller was elected head of the party, its supporters’ hope of victoryover POand PiS revived.
Inthe journalist’sopinion, SLD started a very intensive election campaign, it “orga
nizedthe Congress of the Polish Left with great fanfare last year, refreshedthe party platform, pampered former members of theCommunist Party, foundedthe Congress of
Women of the Left, pompouslycelebrated the fifteenth anniversaryof alliances - allto
inspire thesupporters’faith in victory” (Nowakowska, 2014). The election campaign also featured a tour of‘the red bus’ aroundPoland, andSLDmembers boasted ofhav ing had asmany as 134 meetings with their voters duringthe May weekend. Theleit motif of the SLD campaign was the tenth anniversary of Poland’s membership of the EUand the merits of Prime Minister Miller’s government,who finalizedthe accession
decision. The journalistof “Gazeta Wyborcza” claimed that, given the lackof Polish
society’sinterestin Europeanmatters, SLD emphasized domestic matters in theEuro pean campaign.For instance, theywere collecting signaturesunderan SLDmotion to
increase the lowest pension by200.00 zloty,abandon short-term employment contracts (“junk contracts”) andraise the minimumhourly rate to tenzlotys (ibid.). In Nowa-
kowska’sopinion, theresults of thepolls were not advantageous for SLD. The author viewed this,harkingbackto the origins of the party, praising the period of Edward Gierek5 and referringto how elderlytheparty leaderswere.
5 Edward Gierek was the leader of the Polish Communist party (PZPR) from 1970-1980. The be ginning of this period was the time of a marked increase of living standards and improved relations with the West, for which Gierek was initially hailed a miracle-worker and continues to be associated with the relative prosperity of Poland (translator’s note).
During the campaign prior to the European elections, the Polish press also ad
dressedthe issue of the image of the EP in Polishpublic opinion. AdamLeszczyński
observedin “Gazeta Wyborcza”that the imageof theEPistypically associated with
two stereotypes:asprovidinga “salary formeritorious activists or loot for crooks and idlers” (Leszczyński, 2014). In hisarticle Zamałonamysłu,za dużo o kasie [Too little
consideration, too much about cash],Leszczyński said that thepolitical parties treated
the Europeanelections as an exile for those first-class politicians who failed to attain theirpolitical goalsat home. Therefore,he wasnot surprised withthelow turnout fore
casted by the Public Opinion Research Center(CBOS).According to the data collected in March 2014, even fewer voters weregoing to gotothepolls thanfiveyears earlier (the turnout in the 2009European elections amountedto 24.5% in Poland). Thesame surveyshowed that 71 % of respondents expressed an utterlack ofinterest in theEuro pean elections, andthat societybelieved that Polish MEPsdid not have muchto do in Strasbourg.
Another journalist of “Gazeta Wyborcza”, Renata Grochal in the article Loko
motywy partyjnena każde wybory tesame[Partylocomotives the same ineveryelec
tion] emphasized a certain rule of European elections. Political parties betted on the most recognizable faces, afterwinning an EP mandate, returning to Poland to partici pate in another domestic parliamentary orpresidential election. Suggesting the double standards of politicians,the journalistquoted Zbigniew Ziobro, Presidentof the United Polandparty, whosaid; “If we didnot stand for theEPit would mean that we areretir ing from politics. But for some ofus domestic policy ismost important. We are honestly
signaling that some of us are likelyto run in other elections” (Grochal, 2014a). The
journalistobserved that the practice of abandoning mandatesbefore the end of theelec
tion termoccurs inallpolitical parties and is not a Polish invention. The renowned soci ologist, JarosławFlis, said that “behaving in thismanner the parties are counting on less thanrational voterswho are looking for famousnames on thelists and are notmuch in
terested in what happensthereafter” (ibid.).
As the elections drew nearer, the leading Polish magazines were forecasting the
electionsuccess of the party ofJanusz Korwin-Mikke, the NewRight, in surpassingthe
5% threshold.TheEditor-in-Chief of the“Instytut Idei” and the headof theCivil Insti
tute (InstytutObywatelski), Jarosław Makowski, statedthat for several years wehad been dealing withan electorate fueled by grievance and protest whose chosenleader in
theseelections was precisely Janusz Korwin-Mikke. “This is a group of 6-8% of the electorate whobecomeactivearound every election.Every time they find a different
reason for mobilizing, adifferent leader anddifferent reasons to protest and express
their grievances. This groupis strongenough tolaunch amarginal party into themain
current of politics, but weakenough not to be able to actually upset thepoliticalorder” (Makowski, 2014).
The head of thethinktank associated with PO observed that thepartywhichwins thesupport of sucha “floating electorate” canfind themselves in the dustbin ofhistory
as rapidlyas they enteredpolitics, because thesentiments of their electorate are change
able and it “quickly getsbored with itsnew idol, treatingit somewhat like a toy which is
thrown away when it stops bringing joy” (ibid.). Such a scenario was forecast by JarosławMakowskifor the headof the New Right.
Theleader of the NewRight disclosed the true intentions for their participationin the Europeanelections in “Newsweek”.The maingoal for him andhis partywas to suc
ceed in the national elections, to disprovethe claims made by somevoters that a vote cast for Korwin-Mikkeisa wastedvote.Therefore, the party treated the European elec
Euro-pean Parliament to overthrowtheUnion using the Union’s money [...]Union money,
immunity, free travel-all have their significance. We are going to use them brazenly.
We will take money fromthe Unionand we will usethismoneyto overthrow it from the
inside [...] The Union is anentityappropriated by agang of socialists. Underthe Un
ion’s occupation,evenGermany is being finished off. All this rotten structure is dying,
there is no economicdevelopment, children are not being bom, there is anutter moral
collapse. These people need to be shot forgenocide” (Pawlicka, 2014), declared the leader of the conservative liberals.
Zdzisław Krasnodębski calledin “Gazeta Polska” fora morePolish Europeafter the
end of the election campaign. He assessedPoland’s membership of the European Union, remarking that themedia only stress whatPoles received from theUnion, failing to mention what Poland gave to a united Europe. Therefore, instead of the
re-Christianizationof Europe we are faced by itsgenderization. Intheopinion of the
author,who is closely associated withPiS, “we can and we should share ourfreedom
and our Christian and national traditionwithEurope [...] insteadofbecoming increas ingly German, Europe shouldbecome a bit more Polish” (Krasnodębski, 2014).
Onhome stretch of the campaign, Polish journalists were in agreementthattheelec
tion campaignfor the European Parliament lacked energy, commitmentand original
ideas. Jerzy Domański observed in “Przegląd” that the situation was complicated by the electorallaw:“European electoral law is devious, it dishonestly gives preference to the
favorites of party apparatus, and is utterly incomprehensible to voters” (Domański,
2014b). All theleading newspapersandmagazinesin Poland stressed the lack of seri
ous and substantial debate (Wroński, 2014b).
OnMay 14, 2014, “Gazeta Wyborcza”noted that on the occasion of the approach ing anniversaryof theBattle of Monte Casino, DonaldTuskwould both takepartin the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the battle andmeet Pope Francis. A journalist
from “Gazeta Wyborcza”, Renata Grochal,indicated that this was not a coincidence, but socialengineering.In thismanner, PO was trying towin the support of the unde cidedelectorate among people over 55years ofage. Thesepeoplerememberthewar,
they fear the crisis acrosstheeastern border, attach importance to historical anniversa ries and are closely attached to the Catholic Church (Grochal, 2014b).Inthe opinionof
thejournalist, anotherfavorable circumstance forPO was the media coverage of the Ukrainian issue and thetenth anniversaryof Poland’s membership of the EU.
The Polish pressalsopresentedan assessment of theelection campaign conducted
by theleading politicalparties in rural areas. “Zielony Sztandar” reported on a folk fes tival held in the cradleof the people’s movement- Rzeszów,on May18. Thefestival was attended bya number of prominent politiciansfrom PSL,including the Ministerof Labor and Social PolicyWładysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the PSL leader in the Pod karpacie regionJanBury, and candidates for the EP: Dariusz Dziadzio, Alicja Wosik, Stanisław Bartman and Justyna Piekut. Inalong speech, Jan Bury, President of theRe gional Board of PSL in Rzeszów, addressed the benefits Poland enjoyed on account of
its EUmembership. Inthe context of theapproaching elections, Bury warnedagainst the partiesthat wantedto destroy the Union fromthe inside, which meantthatthey wanted to destroy an order that was ideal forPoles:“Ukrainians, Moldovans and Geor gians would love tolive in such a Europe”(Pieniążek, 2014).Healso stressed therole
ofPSLin building the ThirdPolish Republic: “some of youcan say thatyou have had 5, 6, 7, 8,9% [ofthe vote], and have not exceeded 10% for manyyears. Butthis 8% we do havemeans morethan 40%inopposition.Because we have an influence on what is
happening. Wehave aninfluence onUnionmeasures,onnational andregional pro
grams. Onhow Union money will bespent. This is not influencedby theopposition, by
themalcontents of the entire European Union” (ibid.).
“Gazeta Wyborcza” stressed other accents of the election campaign in ruralareas.
Agata Nowakowskastatedthatthe President of PiS becameamajor farmer in Poland.
Shereferredtothe statistics from CBOS, showing that rural Polandvotes primarily for
PiS and PO, and only after thatfor PSL. Thepolls also evidenced that PiS enjoys the support of farmers who own smaller plots of land(3-4ha), PSL unites those inposses
sion of4-50 ha and PO is mainly supported by farmers in possession ofover 300 haof
land (Nowakowska, 2014b). Thejournalistalso assessed the political parties’election platforms addressed attherural electorate. In her opinion, PiS presented a social plat
formaimedat impoverished farmers. Its main assumptions wererelated toallowances. In heropinion, this platform was goodfor poorfarmers,but it did notgive them anyde
velopmentopportunities. Election slogans also concerned religious issues and world view: “they advertisefood thatis free fromGMO and from ritual slaughter” (ibid.). In
contrast, PSL- ideologicallyassociated with farmers - approached the campaignsub
stantively, frequently retorting PiS statements on theembargo onPolishmeat in Rus sia, the size of Polish exports and benefits Polish agriculture had gained from EU membership.
OnMay 19, TomaszBielecki, a reporter for “Gazeta Wyborcza” in Brussels, inhis articlePo co nam Parlament Europejski [Whatdo weneed the European Parliament for?] triedto mobilize theelectorate to participate in theMay 2014elections to the EP. He listed themost important tasks of the EP (such as co-deciding about thecostly agri cultural and energy policies,Unionfunds andbudgetarypolicy) and pointed to thenu
merousmerits ofMEPs which would be increasingly noticeablefor European society, as the powers of the EP increased.Amongthemost important tasks, he identified the re ductionof telephone roamingcharges, eventually leading to theelimination of roaming fees altogether, reduced CO2 emissions, combating theproject to ban the productionof
menthol and slim cigarettes, protecting Europe from US espionage and rejecting the ACTA agreement advocated by the US since 2012 (Bielecki, 2014). Thejournalistfrom “GazetaWyborcza” referredto the statement by Agnieszka Lada, an expert in the Insti
tute of Public Affairs,who indicated that “voter turnout inthe European elections has
an impact on the prestigeofEU members.If Polish citizensshowed in the elections that
theywantedto co-decide aboutthe fate of the Union and they caredfor it, it would
doubtlessly strengthen the authority of Poland indiscussions on the Union’s future”
(ibid.).
JerzyDomański in“Przegląd”observed that our absence fromtheEuropean elec
tions would mean “a walkover and a bonus for those we surely do not want inBrussels” (Domański,2014c). Renata Grochalpublished the articlePo co nam europoslowie, po conam europarlament? [Whydo we needMEPs, and what do we need theEPfor?] in
“Gazeta Wyborcza”, where she stressed that the next elections to the EP were extremely
voters, to decide who would become our representatives inBrussels. Shepresentedthe standpoints ofdifferent election committees on those European issues thatwere essen
tial for Poland, such as membership of theeuro zone, the establishment ofa European army, subsidiesto agriculturalproduction, strengthening economic sanctionstowards
Russia, employment migration,Poland’saccession to banking union and transforming the EU into a federation.She also indicated that a number of these issues wereabsent
fromthe current election campaign in Poland. She also observedthat theEP wasfacing newchallengesand serious tasks in its new term of office.Among other things,theEP wouldrun consultations on the agendaoftasksfor the new European Commission, ne
gotiate the agreementon free tradeand investments with the US and further unification of the EU’s internalmarket.In her opinion,theEU was expecting adifficult fall,since the newvoting system in the Council of the European Unionwould come into effect in November-thesystem of double majority,which increasesthe power of the votes cast
by thelargestEUmembers (Grochal, 2014b). She also noted thattheEU was aboutto launch commonbanking supervision,which curbed therole ofnational controllingin stitutions. Therefore,the journalist argued that thevoice of the electorate and Polish participation in the European elections wasof immense importance. However, Polish
politicians not onlynever made the decision about when toenter the euro zone but, in
stead, during the election campaign were tackling marginal issues:“we have a festival ofsilly election spots, politicians preferred to take measurements of their waists, sing
songs orcompeteon being more anticlericalthan others” (ibid.) she concluded. The journalists from“Polityka”, Mariusz Janickiand Wiesław Władyka, presented
a similar assessment of the European campaign. Intheiropinion,the 2014 campaign
was characterized by sluggishness, alackofideas anddeadly routine“as ifa restaurant
bandhad to playFor he’sa jollygoodfellowfor the thousandth time in the smallhours”
(Janicki, Władyka,2014). They primarilyblamed the politicians for this stateofaffairs, fornot having any ideas how toconvincetheirelectoratestovote forthem, whether at meetings, orduring TV debates andin election spots:“nobody has come upwith a big geridea, afresh social concept oraninnovative economic vision” (ibid.). On the other
hand, theynoted that societyshowed nointerest in the European elections. Therefore, they calledthe electioncampaigna ‘ sidewalk campaign’,6 while the politicalmarketing techniques used in theseelections were comparedto those atthelevel of a local store, where everything was equally important: the situation inUkraine, a Papal audience,
Jarosław Kaczynski’s new sweater, the flood, a book by Piskorski, Kwaśniewski’s
money and the beardedwoman in the Eurovision Song Contest (ibid.). In their opinion, however, we shouldnot rely only on the contentof the average election campaign. This is not important,theelections are important, and that is why they encouraged theelec torate to takepart in the European elections. In theirextensivearticle, theyalso noted that a majority of polls indicated that the main contestagain concerned the choice be tweenPO and PiS, since thesetwo major parties expressed theideological emotions of
modem Poles.
6 This is an allusion to the activities of local authorities who become particularly active before the elections finishing various projects, such as laying sidewalks in their constituency (translator’s note).
Three days before the European elections,“Gazeta Wyborcza” published aEuro-rank- ing featuring the profiles of the fivebestand worstMEPsfrom theprevious term.The jour
nalists compiled it on thebasis ofsuch criteria as thestatistics of their speeches, reports, amendments, inteij ections,aswell as their contactswith other MEPs.Intheassessment of the newspaper, inthe period from 2009-2014 Poland was bestrepresentedby Danuta
Hübner (among other thingsforchairingthe commission onregional developmentand su pervising the regulations on cohesion policy which favoredPoland),Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (amongotherthingsfor commitment to Ukrainian issues and establishingthe Parliamen tary Assembly of the Eastern Partnership), Jerzy Buzek (amongother things for highregard he enjoys as anefficient Unionofficial and to someextent for presiding over theEP), Jan
Olbrycht(among other things for his contribution to cohesion policy and regional funds),
Wojciech Olejniczak (amongotherthings for hisactivities in the committee on regional de
velopment,aswell as agriculture and rural development) and RóżaThun (forher activities
in the committeeontheinternalmarket and consumerprotection).
The term served by the following MEPs was considered as wasted: Zbigniew
Ziobro, Jacek Kurski and Tadeusz Cymański from the ‘Ziobro team’ (among other
thingsfortheirsupport for NigelFarage, leaderof theUK Independence Party, a popu list, anti-immigration,xenophobic and to a certain extent anti-Polishparty). In the opin ionof thejournalists, MarekMigalski fromUnited Poland also wasted his fiveyearsin the EP. He penned the bookParlament antyeuropejski [Anti-European Parliament] where he described thesystem oflegalcorruption in the EUhe was a part of,gaining enormous profitshimself(no author, “Gazeta Wyborcza”,2014).
Aftertheelections
After the election results were officiallyannounced, therewere numerous com
mentsin the Polishpress. Politicianswere condemned and blamed for thelowturnout
and ignorance of society asregards the activities of the EP. The winners were discussed,
thatis PO and PiS, and particular attention waspaid to thestaggering result of the New Right,the partyof Janusz Korwin-Mikke. Polish journalists were trying tocome up withthepost-election scenarios for these parties.
Polish journalistsalsoevaluated the losers, in particular theEPTR Alliance, which
- having failedto exceed the 5% election threshold -was in their opinion going to dis appear from politics.
Tomasz Sommerin “Najwyższy Czas” announced the victory ofconservative-liber
als and libertarians in the 2014 election. Giventhesenewcircumstanceshe forecasted the new role to beplayed by Korwin-Mikke’sparty, whichwas to tip the scales when
the government is formed after thenext parliamentary election. InSommer’s opinion,
this would be agovernment of experts rather than party activists and coteries, that would leadto the“radical deregulation,reduced taxes and social securitypaymentsas
well as the liberalizationof the entire statestructure, sincethis is what amajority of Polesclearly want” (Sommer, 2014c).
Janina Paradowskaobservedin “Polityka” that these European elections reinforced
Polishpolitical parties.Inheropinion, theresultachieved by the third party in succes sion, SLD, was an average one, but thefact that this party by far outstripped the EPTR
alliancewith its main driving forces, Kazmierz Kutzand Ryszard Kalisz, supported by
Aleksander Kwaśniewski, was awe-inspiring. She considered the New Right of Janusz Korwin-Mikke as the dark horse of these elections, although“radicalismand the inten
tionto blow up the European Union are hardly popular” in Poland (Paradowska, 2014).
Thisrenowned journalist also stressed thefactthat,ironically,Europe was far from be ing the main issue in these European electionsof May 25, 2014.
Robert Matejuk from “ZielonySztandar” deemed the6.8% ofvotes gainedbyPSL to bean unquestionable success. In hisopinion,PSL owed this success toseveral fac
tors, such as “very active and hard working, excellent candidates(Janusz Piechociński, Jarosław Kalinowski, Czeslaw Siekierski, Andrzej Grzyb) backed bytheir election
committee, headed by Adam Jarubas, the publicationof newspapers and magazines
that presented the achievements of PSLand reachedhalf a million of their electorate, and - first and foremost - a positive and topical campaign: PSL did notattack anybody on the left or on the right. This demonstrated thatPSL was tackling actual problems that
could be resolved” (Matejuk,2014).
Joanna Lichocka from “GazetaPolska”stated that theEuropean elections inPoland
ended in adraw,sincePO’s victory amounted togaining 24,000 votes morethanPiS. In herarticle Ostatnitaki wynik PO [The last suchPO result], she said that, given such a low turnout, the party ofDonaldTusk could face defeatin the next national elections. In her opinion, the true winner of these Europeanelections wasPiS, which gained its best result in the Europeanelections so far. Translating this result into Polish reality,she said that “unlesssomething serious happens, orPiS makes serious mistakes, it should
win inthe local elections, and then inthe parliamentaryelections, and itshould win
clearly” (Lichocka, 2014b).
GrzegorzRzeczkowskifrom “Polityka” commented on theresult of the New Right
ofJanusz Korwin-Mikke. The journalist referred to theresults of thesurvey conducted
by the IPSOS research center for the television stations TVP and TVN 24, whichindi
cated thatthe New Right mainly won the votes of educated males in the 18-25 age brackets. The election campaign of Korwin-Mikke’s party was described as taking sup port from other parties, in particularEPTR(havinggained the votes of over 18% of its
electorate from 2011).Inthe journalist’sopinion, this was mainly caused by the party
leader’s instability, changeability and impatience, making him increasingly difficult to
define politically. By contrast, Korwin-Mikkewas amodel of stability: “populistically
expressive,he achieved rhetorical mastery thanks to thethousands of debates,TV dis
putes and countlessmeetingswithvotershe attended, driving hisold Hyundai around Poland” (Rzeczkowski, 2014). For the journalist, the advantage of Korwin-Mikke’s
campaign lay in his longpresence in politics, beingan active blogger on the internet, and his conservative and liberaloutlookpresentedfor overtwentyyears.In his opinion, this directness attracted the young electorate, which chose Korwin-Mikke instead of Palikot this time. The journalistof“Polityka” warned, however, that the favor of the
young electorate was particularly volatile: “if in their opinion Korwin-Mikkecrosses a thin line ofbeing ridiculous and exaggerates his eccentricity, his fortunes can reverse”
A definitemajorityof Polish journalists was critical of the commitmentof Polish
parties to the Europeanelections. The campaign was assessed as chaotic, based on ‘cheaptricks’ similar to those used in previous elections. The journalistsstated that pol
iticians mainly wanted to remindtheelectorate of themselves before the approaching
local andparliamentary elections,so theytreated the European elections asa warm-up
before the national elections. Similar to former elections(in 2004and 2009), this cam paignlacked substantial serious topics related primarilytoEuropean issues. Therefore,
it is hardlysurprisingthatthe turnout was disappointing and Polishsociety once again
manifested its anti-institutionalattitudes,involving alack of faith in the power of their votes cast and disbelief in democratic electionprinciples.
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Summary
The paper presents the opinions of Polish journalists on the results of the elections to the Eu ropean Parliament in Poland in 2014. The paper discusses the style of the election campaigns conducted by the different political parties. It also assesses the degree to which politicians and society were involved in the European elections. The paper presents the profiles of EP members published in the Polish press. The analysis is conducted on the basis of articles published from April 15 till May 27, 2014 in “Gazeta Wyborcza”, “Rzeczpospolita”, “Zielony Sztandar”, “Przegląd”, “Gazeta Polska”, “Najwyższy Czas”, “Polityka”, “Wprost” and “Newsweek”.
Key words: European Parliament, political parties, European election, election campaign, MEPs, Polish press
Prasa polska o wyborach do Parlamentu Europejskiego w Polsce w 2014 roku
Streszczenie
W artykule zaprezentowano opinie publicystów prasy polskiej na temat wyników wyborów do Parlamentu Europejskiego przeprowadzonych w Polsce w 2014 roku. W artykule zwrócono uwagę na style prowadzenia kampanii wyborczej przez partie polityczne. Oceniono także sto pień zaangażowania polityków oraz społeczeństwa w Eurowybory. Opisano również sylwetki eurodeputowanych przedstawiane w prasie polskiej. Analizy dokonano na podstawie artykułów opublikowanych w dniach 15.04-27.05.2014 r. na łamach: “Gazety Wyborczej”, “Rzeczpospo litej”, “Zielonego Sztandaru”, “Przeglądu”, “Gazety Polskiej”, “Najwyższego Czasu”, “Polity ki”, “Wprost” oraz “Newsweeka”.
Słowa kluczowe: Parlament Europejski, partie polityczne, Eurowybory, kampania wyborcza, Eurodeputowani
