Poles set to avoid poll despite colourful campaigns

By Wieslaw Horabik

Date: 20/055/04

A HOG dressed in a tuxedo with a bowler hat and a striped tie, in the colours of Poland's most populist party, Samoobrona (Self-defence), is the central image on a poster currently distributed by the Schuman Foundation. The slogan on the poster sends a funny electoral message: 'Act responsibly, do not infect the air.'

This is just one scene of a colourful campaign involving artists, sportsmen and Big Brother stars as candidates in the first Polish elections for the European Parliament.

Election fever has hit the political establishment, but large parties are already set to be the big winners of the vote as the proportional system favours them at the expense of citizens' initiatives. Proficient party machines have no problem with collecting the required ten thousand signatures in all 13 voting districts, but for individual candidates, the bar is set too high.

It is thus extremely difficult for ordinary Poles, frustrated with their country's political elite, to voice their true preferences. Less than a month before the elections, the majority of the population has declared it will stay away from the polls.

There are 54 seats awaiting the Poles in Strasbourg and Brussels. The average age of the candidates is 42, with the youngest being 21 and the oldest an octogenarian. Young candidates claim to have fresh ideas and condemn some parties' practice of offering a 'golden retirement' to old politicians by way of a seat in the Parliament.

"Some parties designate their representatives to the European Parliament in a gesture of ensuring a comfortable retirement for compromised politicians ," says Stanislaw Wojtyra (25), from the Union of Realpolitik. "Those pensioners have neither the will nor motivation to create new realities."

But young and old alike, candidates in the 13 June poll voice hollow messages and have failed to organize a debate on EU subjects. The party slogans are shallow ('Europe for development, development for Poland' or 'Worthy representation in Europe') and it is hard to find media discussions on European issues and on the tasks of MEPs.

Most of the parties are treating the June poll as a popularity test before the national elections, which may take place sooner than expected, as the transitional government of Marek Belka failed to secure a vote of confidence in parliament last week. If a new government is not formed within a month, the president will have to call early general elections.

As a result, the EU's problems linger on the fringes of much heated domestic debate.

The lists of Polish candidates for the European Parliament are full of prominent artists, scientists, sportsmen and entertainers. The best- known candidates are Bronislaw Geremek, a former minister of foreign affairs, Jerzy Buzek, former prime minister, Jan Kulakowski, the first Polish negotiator with the EU, Maciej Plazynski, a former parliament president, and Andrzej Wajda, a famous film maker. Jaroslaw Walesa, one of Lech's sons, is also trying his luck in politics.

Heroes of reality show Big Brother are among Samoobrona's recruits. As anybody was able to secure a place on the lists of this party in exchange for a sum of money deposited on the party's account, there is a danger that many fortuitous figures will find their way to Strasbourg and Brussels.