Run-off in Poland: vying for right-wing votes
The right-wing populist candidate Sławomir Mentzen, who came third in the first round of the Polish presidential election, has submitted a list of demands to Karol Nawrocki and Rafał Trzaskowski, the two candidates competing in the run-off vote on 1 June, and made his support conditional on their fulfillment. Nawrocki and Mentzen have already had a meeting in which Nawrocki agreed to the conditions and even supported Mentzen's criticism of the PiS. The media takes stock.
PiS appears moderate compared to Konfederacja
In an article on Interia website, journalist Jarosław Kuisz analyses the ideological shifts on the right of the political spectrum:
“Behind the PiS's back, increasingly radical figures are emerging on the right. We should take note of this. This party, which has been labelled extreme in the international press, has now moved towards the centre in political classifications. This is 'thanks to' the candidates of the Konfederacja party [to which Mentzen as well as Braun, who came fourth, used to belong]. However these categorisations seem to miss the point. In election campaigns, the rivals on the right influence each other. They adopt each other's slogans.”
Is Nawrocki alienating PiS voters?
Rzeczpospolita's editor-in-chief Michał Szułdrzyński fears the PiS may shift to the right - which would be a risky move for the party:
“The voters of the [right-wing populist] Konfederacja party may have been swayed by many of Nawrocki's arguments. The question is whether PiS voters won't be annoyed by how strongly their party's candidate is distancing himself from its achievements. But the PiS has made bigger U-turns in the past.”
Tusk and Merz under pressure from the right
The political leaders in Poland and Germany are in the same boat when it comes to stricter border controls, writes Gazeta Wyborcza:
“Both the Polish and German governments are under political pressure. For the Christian Democrats, following up on their election promises is now a matter of credibility: and on top of that the AfD is watching their every move. Poland, meanwhile, has entered the decisive phase of its presidential election campaign, with the PiS and the far right stoking fears about illegal migrants.”