Main opposition leader rejects idea to ally with hard-right party
The leader of Poland's main opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), has ruled out the possibility of entering into an alliance with the ultra-nationalist Confederation of the Polish Crown, led by controversial MEP Grzegorz Braun.
Recent polls indicate that the socially-conservative PiS would be unable to govern alone if it wins the next parliamentary elections and requires a coalition partner to challenge the current pro-EU government. The combined electoral support for PiS, and two far-right groupings, the Confederation and the Confederation of the Polish Crown, in recent surveys suggests a large, over 40-percent shared voter base that favours a right-wing, anti-system, and nationalist agenda.
However, Jaroslaw Kaczynski told the conference on Monday that "there is no question of any alliances with Braun's party."
He claimed that it is an "unserious" grouping, formed by people who "should not be involved in Poland's public life." According to Kaczynski, the Confederation of the Polish Crown consists of "people associated with Russia," or people who may have "some issues" with mental stability.
He pointed to the party members, Mateusz Piskorski, who was charged with spying for Russian intelligence, and Wojciech Olszanski, convicted for inciting to hatred on the grounds of nationality and religion.
The PiS leader also assessed that potential cooperation between the two parties would be "compromising and completely dysfunctional." He said that building an effective government requires "people who are responsible, who do not destroy Polish public life, who do not reduce it to the level of some kind of very poor spectacle."
Grzegorz Braun, who placed fourth in the first round of the 2025 presidential election, has been at the centre of several high-profile controversies. These comprised an incident in late 2023 when he blew out the candles on a Jewish menorah with a fire extinguisher during a Hanukkah ceremony in the Polish parliament. His other provocative actions include vandalising a Christmas tree adorned with EU and Ukrainian flags, trampling on the EU flag, disrupting a lecture by a German historian, and holding a doctor captive for over an hour in protest over an abortion she had performed. Braun also physically assaulted the head of the National Institute of Cardiology in Warsaw. (PAP)
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