I present the proposal of Polish citizens, adopted by resolution before Citizens' Debate dedicated to the search for a constitutional majority in the 2023 elections.
Proposal of Polish Citizens
1. Election targets – state right
They can be understood and defined differently. The citizens of Poland are talking about a deep constitutional constitutional constitutional reform, in our opinion, which gives sense to the constitutional promises of a country whose institutions belong to citizens and citizens. However, we know that today's situation is to break the nightmare of the Law and Justice governments, and that intent must not be put at hazard in the name of any intent of others, even the most justified and marked by the most valuable values.
So we think in terms of relatives to those of us with whom we have long been having a very fundamental dispute: the goal in these elections is the failure of the governments of the Law and then the maintenance of fresh power – the second is critically crucial and will be highly hard due to the large challenges of rebuilding the state (although we realize it), the deepening crisis and the strength of populism, which will not vanish and the crisis will supply fuel to it.
We all know the basic numbers – 3/5 of the mandates needed by the fresh power to reject the Duda veto and 2/3 of the mandates of the constitutional majority that will be required (formally or in fact due to the mandate of the public support) whenever we face even the opposition adopted by the Law and Justice Tribunal. Regardless of the dispute over the electoral lists and how many they will be, the integrated opposition does not necessarily request as much as 60% of the vote of voters to exceed the threshold of 3/5, nor 67% to accomplish a majority of 2/3. However, the consequence of 60% of support is precisely what the upcoming elections should be about to gain and keep power, even if the fundamental improvement of the system, the regulation of law, women's rights and all another so critically crucial issues are left out. So if the state's right to effort to find a number, that's 60%. We request to know how large this challenge is.
2. Trust
We presume that this time failure is not the biggest threat, due to the fact that the trends of change of support announce the failure of the Law and Justice in all variant of the behaviour of the opposition, and despite the advanced probability of scenarios of provocation, counterfeiting and violence, the Belarusian script does not seem possible in Poland. The real threat is the Pyrrus victory.
Power with a mandate insufficient to defuse all social tensions in times of crisis and the request for very serious changes in critically crucial institutions of the system. The fall of a fresh power under populist force would be worse than the maintenance of current governments. And this script seems to us, unfortunately, inactive very likely.
No consequence close to specified an advantage as the 60% that is needed this time has always happened in the past of the 3rd Republic of Poland and it should be assumed that if in 2023 we compete for the average election campaign, this consequence will inactive be unavailable. From fresh past we remember only 1 triumph of this scale and it is evidently about 4 June 1989. Never later did Poles realise so powerfully the necessity of specified crucial changes and they were never able to trust anyone to specified an extent. As we remember, the protective umbrella resulting from the mandate over the Mazowieckie government and Balcerowicz's costly plan was an essential component of Polish unprecedented success. The situation present is of course different, but there are besides many similarities. This all shows the unprecedented scale of today's electoral challenge and the request to scope for measures without precedent.
The fundamental question today, we believe, is: what to replace this photograph with Walesa, which at the time guaranteed immense social trust. The key is credibility and trust – the assurance of voters that elections are about the state and their own fate, not about power and relations between politicians known for years.
3. Conditions
So regardless of the crucial electoral issues of the strategy, it is clear to us for these reasons that a cross-party social movement should go to elections, and no organization coalition will be able to gain the essential support with the repeatedly measured deficiency of assurance in the organization in research. This evidently does not mean and must not mean any effort to exclude parties and their politicians from the game – on the contrary, it is about building trust in them on fresh principles. We so believe that the social movement should be the host of the cross-party agreement and the subject of the electoral initiative.
We ask all those who think likewise to consider this problem in particular. In our opinion, what we should do in reality present is to set up a network of civilian electoral committees that will announce the launch of joint candidates in elections and will begin to actively search for them in a number of diverse environments – among politicians, social activists, people representing specified environments as lawyers, academics, people of culture, teachers, unionists and social activists.
Citizens' committees should besides make it clear that the joint candidates cannot simply be identified by the electoral staff, but selected after gathering the minimum conditions for decent democracy – after debates and public hearings and after whatever voter will is expressed. The candidate of the civilian movement is so not the 1 who, for example, supports an abortion that is available without restrictions, but 1 who will uncover his own position on this substance and who will want to get the mandate of assurance of voters, as measured in any democratic procedure (many procedures of this kind are possible).
Today, we consider this to be a essential condition for electoral victory.
In turn, the essential condition for maintaining power will be assurance in the parliament that we will elect in the elections. Unlike before, it must be clear to everyone and to everyone in Poland that Parliament is not only the emanation of the political majority holding power, but besides the representation of the rulers who control that power. Hence, it seems essential for us to be on a common list of the strongest possible group of candidates independent of the parties competing for power.
This is what we want to emphasize very clearly – a game about a non-zero sum. It is not about politicians "stepping in the benches", giving way to fresh faces. fewer but existing experiences of specified a way of building cross-party civilian agreements indicate that there are adequate seats for everyone here. It is simply a majority without precedent in the past of the IIIrd Republic of Poland, and it is truly attainable.
4. First the legislature then the Sejm
For many formal reasons, the easiest and safest will be to present candidates for the Senate. This besides seems to be the most apparent action for the public today. Firstly, there is no uncertainty to anyone that all opposition environments should present a common candidate or candidate in each of the 100 legislature districts. The 4 main parties of the opposition agree today.
Secondly, it besides seems as clear as possible to anticipate more than 1 "candidacy candidate" to perceive to them in the debate and to identify the right individual as a result. It is not necessarily indicated by voters in open primaries on a full scale. This function can be entrusted to a typical Citizens' Panel or otherwise constructed, agreed between candidates of the electorate group, and can yet be decided on the basis of pre-established polls. Any specified variant is better than a non-transparent advice of organization headquarters, haggling to divided the cake behind closed doors. At the same time, a "citizen candidate" is not necessarily a partyless social activist. It will be everyone – including the politician, including the 1 who has the mandate of the Senator of the Republic of Poland present – who will receive voter support, not just a organization recommendation.
From this activity we propose to start. It seems that the creation of respective civic committees with specified a circumstantial task is possible to accomplish and is simply a good adequate start to the civic electoral campaign.
The focus on the legislature in its first phase has yet to have the advantage that the legislature should execute functions naturally appropriate for civic activists who do not participate in the power game, alternatively care about following the rules of the game. It is for this intent that activists of the Polish citizens decided to run for office in these elections and besides called for another movements and civic environments.
Politically more important, of course, is the Sejm. However, this creates challenges that do not seem possible today. Both organizationally and politically. In order to get the essential approval and cooperation of the organization headquarters, the public polls besides seem to support the citizens' electoral initiative. If a citizens' legislature initiative succeeds, if it acquires adequate social recognition, a akin way of shaping common parliamentary lists will be possible to think realistically.
This is the proposal of the Polish citizens addressed besides to those with whom we disagree on many crucial issues. We hope that this does not preclude cooperation despite these differences. This is simply a proposal for a debate – not a ready-made action programme that we propose to adopt or reject. There is inactive a space for discussion, there is inactive time to prepare specified a victory, which can supply Poland with a safe future. But time is short.
All of the above is based on the belief that the condition of genuine social mobilization – including both 10 million citizens and citizens voting for parties and opposition candidates today, but besides a large part of the non-voters, due to the fact that to the policies of the affected, all those who, in search of “new quality” voted with hope for various fresh initiatives, supporting Palikot, Kukiza, Petru, Biedronia, to any degree besides the Confederacy and late the Holovnia, as well as a part of the current PiS voters – is authenticity and a sense of performance, the belief that each and all 1 of us can compose the past of the country, that the destiny of “political class” is at stake, but of us all, and that democracy truly works. In an atmosphere of widespread and well-founded disbelief in politics, no electoral promise makes sense. no of them can be proved credible. Apart from democracy itself, this promise can simply be fulfilled in action. Let's do it.
Nationals of Poland
