– You are organizing the 10th Freedom Games in Łódź (15th – 17th September). Nearly 500 speakers, intellectuals, artists and experts from all over the planet will appear. What do we live in September 2023? What are the key topics today?
VEGETABLE LESH: – After vacation, children return to schools where there is terrible chaos. After the pseudo-reform of this Catholic fanatic Minister Przemysław Czarnka, teachers are underfunded and the trainers teach physics. Local fires are likely to extinguish, but many of these crises are structural, due to many years of negligence or the political decisions of the current government. Our goal is that the opposition, which deals mainly with itself for the time being, should address topics crucial to Poles. And education is 1 of them.
– Many experts predicted a year ago that the price could sink the Law and Justice. In the meantime, months pass and at first glance any large tragedy is not seen.
BLAIRE LENKOWSKI: – There is no economical tragedy, but inflation in Poland is importantly higher than in most EU countries, and for 2 quarters we have a negative GDP growth. It is increasingly expensive, and Poles, erstwhile buying food, find it their own way. increasing mortgage payments are besides a problem for an expanding number of people. And everything is simply a consequence of bad decisions and negligence of the government and actions of the National Bank of Poland. There are no clumps in the Law and Justice polls. I thought it would be a deeper phenomenon, but at the same time most polls besides show that the Law and Justice after October elections do not stand a chance for self-government. People are looking for change, they are looking for this "return point", which is the leading slogan of our Games. I firmly believe in specified rationality of Poles. People see that the regulation of the Law and Justice is no longer paying off.
What about energy? It was not yet known whether all in Poland adequate coal?
L.J.: – We've collapsed the full country with coals and there won't be anything to breathe again. People who have gas furnaces started kicking again. Another thing is the heat. The greenhouse effect is visible to the bare eye. In fact, you don't gotta drive south of Europe to fry in the tropics anymore. It's gonna get worse. It's an economical situation. Although for the first time in a long time we have, in this 4th and in the erstwhile negative GDP, the government is incapable to fight in Brussels for Polish farmers, which generates an increase in food prices. The prenup will be heavy.
– It's not much to talk about.
L.J.: – due to the fact that turning the economy over in a year is not specified a simple task. It was known that the PiS would do anything to get to the end of the situation. This government creates long-term, systemic problems and so the Polish model, with low labour costs, the improvement of tiny and medium-sized enterprises, unfortunately, ends. People at these energy prices are not even able to run a bakery, let alone carry out more serious business.
– What does that mean for all of us?
L.J.: – If there is simply a shuffle at the top of power, taking over the budget after the Law and Justice will be a serious problem for everyone who comes to rule. No 1 knows what kind of corpse he'll find in the closet. And if Jarosław Kaczyński came to regulation the next fewer years, I don't think there is any imagination of public finance management. And erstwhile the global economy starts to cool down, we'll get in problem and miss the problems we had this winter with inflation and energy prices.
– In little than 2 months, the election. How do you want to sign up for the Freedom Games on this pre-election time?
B.L.: – investigation shows that safety is crucial for Poles. After all, we remember incidents with rockets and helicopters. Everything that happens beyond our borders makes us not feel safe. That's 1 of the things we'll talk about.
“The guests of the Freedom Games will include active politicians: Isabella Leschina, Catherine Lubnauer, Jakub Kulesza. Senator candidate Adam Bodnar is besides coming. Do you, as organizers, gotta defy the allegations that you favour the opposition or that you take money to advance a peculiar political option?
L.J.: – There's no specified thing. We're doing our occupation due to the fact that citizens deserve to be able to talk to their representatives. We give them this chance due to the fact that politicians talk to us a lot, and we mostly just listen. We request to talk specifically, and we can't pretend like nothing's going on! Therefore, I encourage you to ask questions on the net or just come to Łódź and participate in any panel.
– Will there be any power?
B.L.: "The government has consistently refused to accept our invitations for years. any experts associated with the right sometimes agree to come to us, while politicians from the ellipse of power for any reason are closed to our event.
– Do you know why they're not coming? Did they get grounded from above? Or are the questions in your panels biased?
L.J.: – (Laughter) Unfortunately, in Poland, specified a sharp division into political camps has been preserved, and even if we are originally inviting all parties to the political dispute, then on the side of the ruling organization is closing on our proposal. I think there's besides a concern that someone's going to accuse individual of coming into contact with liberal organizations. And that's just silly.
Why?
L.J.: – Digging in their newsbanks is simply harmful to Poland. Democracy should be about people meeting, talking, and everyone has the chance to present their position besides to the public about another views. “Angora” reaches a wide scope of readers and you are surely besides read by politicians of the ruling party. That is why I appeal to Mateusz Morawiecki. Prime Minister! Come to Łódź. We will talk, we will have a large talk about Poland, and I promise that the questions will not be biased. Mr president Jarosław Kaczyński! If you do not want to talk about current politics, we will talk about history, or possibly we should talk about this imagination of Poland that you are pushing. Poles have the right to participate in this discussion, and politicians are obliged to face besides those views with which they are not necessarily on their way. due to the fact that after all, it's us citizens who pay their salaries, and they work for us. Not the another way around.
– 1 of the guests of the Freedom Games will be Prof. Przemysław Sadura. His last book "Populist society", which he wrote together with Sławomir Sierakowski, reminds that Poles at the tops of power (and not only that) are no longer able to talk to each other. Jarosław Kaczyński says about Donald Tusk that "he is an envoy of the Brussels elite and cannot regulation Poland". “Let him go to his Germany, and let him harm it, not here,” urges the president of the Law and Justice Office. I'd like a comment.
B.L.: – This attitude towards polarisation and the exclusion of political opponents from the national community is absolutely outrageous. We may have a different approach to many things, but specified words should never fall. No 1 can be ruled out! specified playing for polarization is not only a problem of Poland, but besides of the United States. In the short term, it generates voices, drives support, but it's short-sighted. It shortly turns out that there are many topics that concern us all. As Poles, we are in the same boat, we have common goals. Security, costly and energy transition are not issues that concern 20% of Platform voters or only 20% of Law and Justice voters. They concern all Poles and in order to solve them, consent is needed over divisions and many years of common, strategical action. We are facing the fundamental challenge of how to rebuild the community. Despite the differences at the end of the day, we all live in the same country anyway, and if we don't work things out together, we all will.
– Or should the opposition page go to a confrontation and talk the same language as it is harassed? There are voices that you can't win your mud wrestling without getting your hands dirty.
L.J.: – Indeed, it is simply a British saying that a pig in the mud should not be wallowed. I'd gotta do that. Going into confrontation with specified an opponent and under his conditions usually ends badly. He'll drag you to his level, then humiliate you and defeat you.
Do you request rules?
L.J.: – Very, due to the fact that fundamentally the only justice in this fight in the political arena is us citizens. All another fuses and those bodies overseeing elections – courts, Constitutional Court, and even the State Election Commission – PiS weakened, dismantled or disassembled its people and turned into any kind of grotesque. There are no more institutions to follow the rules of the game.
– And then what happens?
L.J.: – I believe in the wisdom of Poles who see that specified talk by Jarosław Kaczyński about Donald Tusk is making water from people's brains. We have a war beyond the east border, and why do we request an interior war? Joseph Piłsudski said: “I will not teach you wars on 2 fronts.” And Jarosław Kaczyński wants to fight opposition and Germany alternatively of Russia. Of course, we know the communicative and we know that it is easy for the German to pay for it, but, for God's sake, we live in 2023, not in 1945. We must effort to reconstruct the standards in the debate and so I think that we can win fair.
– What is the importance of the next election?
B.L.: The chance to change is huge. specified a large chance to break this Law and Justice-created arrangement of oligarchization of the state has not been in place for 8 years.
– What will decide the outcome?
B.L.: Mobilization. Who cares more. And the consequence of this clash will be determined by tiny flows of votes. These tens will consist of thousands. And possibly it'll all decide if we can convince 10 of our friends.
– Sometimes 1 individual is hard to convince...
B.L.: – It's not about boxing with hardhearted supporters of the Jarosław Kaczyński Party. However, I know quite a few people who simply say, “There is no change as it is.” Or, “I’m not going to the election due to the fact that my voice doesn’t matter. This does not concern me, I better stay home.” It's bad thinking. specified people should be removed from this marazme and made aware that their voices depend on the future of their children and grandchildren.
– It is said that these elections will possibly be the most crucial since 1989. Really?
L.J.: – We have a very crucial election ahead of us, but whether they're more crucial than those in 2015 or 2019, I don't know. It is all indications that they will not be settled due to the fact that a fresh force in the form of a Confederacy enters. Therefore, in my opinion, the probability that the government that will emergence after these elections will regulation for 4 years is low. We are most likely waiting for accelerated elections and possibly only in the package with presidential elections will decide the direction of Poland's improvement for longer. Doesn't mean you gotta wait calmly. You gotta go and do your job. And we're doing our job.
– Which points of the Freedom Games are the most interesting?
B.L.: – This year's speakers and speakers include Rebecca Makkai, Oksana Zabużko, Deirdre McCloskey, Anne Applebaum, Anda Rottenberg, Ewa Ewart, Renata Lis, Stefan Chwin, Jan-Werner Müller, Misia Furtak, Grzegorz Friday. There will besides be another large guests: Adam Bodnar, Jarosław Kurski, Magdalena Wednesdaya, Andrzej Chyra, Katarzyna Kasia, Marcin Meller, Krzysztof Varga, Mikołaj Grynberg. I sharpen my own teeth for a lecture and a gathering with prof. Mark Galeotti. He's a specialist in Russia, geopolitics and Vladimir Putin. I think that fewer people in the planet as well as he understands the motivation of the president of Russia. This could be a fascinating encounter.
– In public debate, there are besides fewer or nothing. Are you going to plead for Andrzej Pochobut, imprisoned by the Belarusian regime?
B.L.: - Yeah. Andrew just got another punishment after 30 days in the hole. Six months in a alleged prison cell. Andrew is simply a symbol. In this case it can be said that we are powerless, but we must show that we remember a man wrongfully convicted by the dictatorial Lukashenko regime. Unfortunately, specified a government is located just beyond our borders.
– During the Freedom Games, you always effort to look to the future. Why is it so important?
B.L.: – You should be prepared for what happens due to the fact that everything changes very quickly. Many experts indicate that we are witnessing a large technological revolution. Like 20 years ago, the net completely changed the way we work and our lives, so artificial intelligence is spreading now. It already concerns many areas of our lives and our work, so we must be prepared for fresh challenges.
