Page 37 - bneMag Oct23

bne October 2023 Central Europe I 37
of what Konfederacja considers are
rules restraining people’s personal and economic freedoms, such as taxes or other forms of pooling money for the benefit of the society, such as state-funded healthcare and education systems.
The party has also spoken against doling out money to people via welfare, which, it says, is what makes PiS “fake right-wing”.
The “true” right-wing credits of Konfederacja do not end with the plans
to transform Poland from its current socialism-infested politics – represented not just by PiS, according to the party, but also Donald Tusk's KO, the Left, and the agrarians from PSL, collectively nicknamed “the gang of four” by Konfederacja leaders – to a society of free capitalists.
Konfederacja also says that the EU has degenerated from guaranteeing “fair competition rules and opportunities to work and save, to absurd climate policy, destroying the competitiveness of industry, and explosive costs of construction,” according to Krzysztof Bosak, one of the most articulate politicians in Poland, with a talent for fast comebacks in live debates.
Most of Konfederacja's other leaders are better known for their high school pranks – fittingly Mentzen has made a
name for himself in large part thanks to TikTok videos.
In one of his most recent real-life antics, he arrived at the gates of a well-known psychiatric hospital in Choroszcz, north- eastern Poland, on August 28.
“I have arrived here but not to be examined but to reserve beds for Kaczynski and Tusk ... who we are going to send here immediately after the election,” Mentzen said.
An uproar followed about poking fun at psychiatric health in a country where patents continue to be stigmatised and where access to professional help is limited, especially for young people.
Rocking in the free world
Mentzen arrived at the hospital in Choroszcz right after the previous day’s rally in nearby Bialystok, where he and Bosak promoted Konfederacja to a crowd of mostly young voters.
“Our product is credibility, conviction, energy, and the willingness to blow the system up,” Bosak said, the local edition of the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported.
At the Bialystok rally and others that have taken place so far, Bosak is the one doing serious talk about politics and the
“rising tide of societal mutiny”, which, he says, the left calls a “wave of populism”.
“Why don’t we call it a wave of democracy,” Bosak told the crowd in Bialystok.
The rallies are staged so that after Bosak’s hard talk, Mentzen takes over with the jokes and memes displayed on a screen behind his back.
The message from the rallies – they are advertised as “Bosak & Mentzen live” with posters made as if they promoted rock concerts – appears to have sunk in with a lot more people in 2023 than they did in 2019.
Konfederacja has averaged 10.2% in the last 30 days in the polls, according to poll-aggregating website wybory.eu. The support for the party ranged from just 6% to as many as 14.9% during that time.
The party’s outlook on its post-election strategy may be unclear but Konfederacja leaders say they are in it for the long-run – which is until they can take over power.
In a rare quote giving credit to Kaczynski and Tusk, Mentzen told the Bialystok rally: “If someone says we are never going to win power, I reply: who prophesied in 2001 that Kaczynski or Tusk would rule Poland one day?”
Czech companies urge PM to ensure equal rights to LGBT+ people
Albin Sybera
In a rare move, Czech companies have addressed an open letter to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala
to back marriage-for-all legislation. Companies argue they are losing talent as a result of unequal rights for sexual minorities in the country.
“The letter was signed by 66 smaller and bigger companies employing tens of thousands of people in the Czech Republic,” Richard Stonavsky, vice
president of Vodafone, one of the letters' signatories, was quoted as saying by Czech Television (CT).
The letter states that discrimination against LGBT+ people costs the Czech economy 0.1-0.7% of GDP annually.
Fiala leads a centre-right coalition of five parties, which has a comfortable majority of 108 legislators in the Chamber of Deputies (parliament) of 200. However,
the coalition’s conservative legislators from the neoliberal ODS and the strongly Catholic Christian Democrats oppose
the marriage for all legislation, which made it to the second reading in the parliament in June for the first time in Czechia’s history.
The second reading of the legislation is expected in November.
Fiala thanked the companies for the
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