One of the Confederation leaders, Sławomir Mentzen, officially announced at Saturday’s convention – as the first candidate – his start in next year’s presidential elections. “I will be the most active president, in terms of submitted and vetoed bills,” he declared.
Mentzen is the first candidate to declare his participation in the next presidential elections, which will take place next summer; these elections have not yet been officially called – according to the constitution, they are called by the Speaker of the Sejm on a day falling no earlier than 100 days and no later than 75 days before the expiry of the term of office of the incumbent president.
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Despite this, Mentzen launched his election campaign at a convention held in Warsaw on Saturday. In his speech, he stated that as president, he would be the most active of the Polish heads of state to date – who, he assessed, have so far functioned as “puppets” of their party leaders – including in terms of submitted projects and vetoed laws.
As he said, he does not intend to be a president who “signs everything that the chairman of his party brings”. Among his priorities, he indicated security and the economy. According to Mentzen, currently, despite the real threat of armed conflict, Polish security is in a deplorable state, among others due to the situation of the armed forces, which – as he said – are struggling with a lack of equipment and reservists, whose average age is about 50. “It does not appear that we are preparing for this conflict” – he assessed the activities of the current government.
Mentzen also addressed the issue of attempts to cross the border illegally – he stated that it is unacceptable for anyone to cross the border illegally. “If someone tries to cross the border of the Polish state illegally, they should simply be shot,” he declared.
Referring to economic issues, Mentzen stated that its key problem is the regulations “gagging entrepreneurs”. He spoke in favor of simplifying them, including reforming income taxes, as well as limiting the role of the state in the economy, except for strategic industries, such as arms production. In addition, in his opinion, energy production should be deregulated; the politician also spoke in favor of building nuclear power plants.
Mentzen also spoke about opposing the “left-wing ideology” that he believes is currently spreading in Western countries, as well as in Poland, including in schools. He spoke in favor of “strengthening the right to raise children,” which in his opinion “belong to parents, not the state.” In this context, he spoke about increasing the right to homeschooling, as well as “stopping compulsory vaccinations.”
