Internal conflict intensifies in Poland 2050 as rival factions battle for control of the party’s leadership council.
Who Will Gain Majority in the Council?
This represents a turn of events, as just last Thursday, during an attempt to fill vacancies in the Council, a major argument erupted within the party. The terms of nine parliamentary members of this body (six MPs and three senators) expired on Wednesday. In this situation, Vice-Chair of the club Aleksandra Leo (a supporter of Hennig-Kloska) decided to initiate the process of filling the Council vacancies. A club resolution was passed on this matter. However, all of this took place in the absence of the club chairman Paweł Śliz (one of the so-called “Szymonics,” the party’s backing for Hołownia). The resolution was therefore not recognized, and Aleksandra Leo was removed from her position as vice-chair of the club.
The MP disagrees with Chairman Śliz’s decision – she, like her supporters, believes she remains a member of the club leadership. As she told us this morning, she expects an urgent meeting of the club and the election of members to the National Council. However, there will be no club meeting for now. Instead, Paweł Śliz has decided to fill the Council seats through remote voting on Friday.
The selection of the parliamentary delegation to the Council is particularly important as, we hear, it may determine who will have a majority in this body – the party’s backing for Szymon Hołownia (which has also supported the candidacy of Minister of Funds and Regional Policy Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz in the internal elections so far) or those who want changes in the party and declare support for Minister Hennig-Kloska. “That side fears that we will gain a majority in the Council, which is why yesterday’s attempt to block the election took place,” explains a politician sympathetic to the head of MKiŚ. The National Council is responsible for electing the party leadership.
Hołownia: Let There Be Two Leaders
Divisions and conflict in Poland 2050 intensified in December after Szymon Hołownia, the founder and current leader of the party, decided to finally withdraw from the internal elections. As his successor, he saw Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, who however does not enjoy broad support in the party. Against her, ultimately four candidates ran who demand deep changes in Poland 2050 (including a less confrontational style of functioning in the October 15 Coalition): Paulina Hennig-Kloska and three MPs: Joanna Mucha, Rafał Kasprzyk, and Ryszard Petru.
Pełczyńska-Nałęcz (277 votes in the first round) and Hennig-Kloska (131 votes) advanced to the second round of elections (initially canceled due to voting system problems). In the next stage, she gained the support of the remaining three who were eliminated (they together collected nearly 250 votes).
There is, however, a significant group of “Szymonics” in Poland 2050 – supporters of Hołownia who want him to continue leading the party. As revealed by tvn24.pl on Thursday evening (and Onet on Friday morning), this group (which includes, among others, Paweł Śliz, Minister in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister Adriana Porowska, Minister of Culture Marta Cienkowska, and MPs: Bartosz Romowicz, Agnieszka Buczyńska, and Kamil Wnuk) had secretly been planning to invalidate the elections and keep Hołownia at the helm of the party as early as early January, before the first round of internal elections.
Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, whose support has significantly decreased in recent days, meanwhile renewed on Thursday her offer to co-chair the party with Hennig-Kloska. “Dear ones, I don’t know what’s going on. But I look at all these increasingly tangled legal and personal disputes with deep concern. The conflict is escalating and soon there won’t be a brick left of Poland 2050,” Pełczyńska-Nałęcz writes in a letter published by Wirtualna Polska on Thursday. She also argues that only the co-chairmanship model she proposes can protect Poland 2050 from splitting.
Szymon Hołownia supported Pełczyńska-Nałęcz’s initiative on Friday. “Today I proposed to both candidates that they meet at my place, if that’s their will, or in some other place, and reach an agreement that in this difficult, crisis situation, they want to glue the party together by accepting co-chairmanship, co-responsibility for this movement, so that this faction fight stops,” Hołownia told reporters in the Sejm.
MP Aleksandra Leo, who declares support for Hennig-Kloska, argues that the internal elections must be completed, though – as she admits – this may be difficult in the current situation. “This is very difficult, but the elections must be completed. This is now the most important process and we should focus on this,” emphasizes the MP.
