Paweł Supernak/PAP
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish prime minister, has said that the autumn’s parliamentary elections are a choice between two visions of Poland.
President Andrzej Duda on Tuesday signed a decision to hold a general election on Sunday, October 15, ending months of speculation about when exactly Poles will head to the ballot box.
Following Duda’s decision, late on Tuesday evening, Morawiecki made an address during a live broadcast on Facebook.
“The president announced the election date for October 15, so a kind of countdown begins… In my opinion, these are absolutely fundamental elections, between two different visions of Poland,” he said.
“One is the vision of a solidarity-based Poland, our vision, and we would like to continue this vision, despite the slip-ups and mistakes for which we need to apologise, Morawiecki added.
He also declared his “full availability” during the election campaign, which started right after Duda’s decision was published in the Journal of Laws on Tuesday.
Morawiecki said that during the campaign he wants to talk with voters about the Poland’s role in Europe.
“This is a crucial thing, because for the first time… in many hundreds of years, we have an extremely high and interesting position in this family of European countries. We have not had such a chance for a long time,” he claimed.
Referring to the main opposition party Civic Platform (PO), led by Donald Tusk, Morawiecki said that Tusk “works under the dictation of Berlin,” and that the tone of PO’s campaign will be set by the head of the European People’s Party (EPP) group, Manfred Weber.
Morawiecki also attacked PO over its years in office between 2007-2015.
“This nightmare policy of the (Civic) Platform of hanging on to German coat-tails resulted in monstrous mistakes, especially in gas and energy policy, dependence on Russia in importing gas, …oil,” he said.
According to Morawiecki, the incumbent ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) has made “gigantic changes” when it came to energy.
“I know that Mr Tusk tells lies without batting an eyelid and may cause confusion in the heads of some Poles, but I encourage everyone to check the facts, figures and once again the facts, the facts are absolutely on our side,” he said.