Wiktor Wichary, 21, is a proud voter of the extremely right -wing party Confederation (Konfederacja). “Freedom is fundamental for me. No one has the right to impose anything on anyone,” this student and part -time office worker argues. In Poland, this formation was the favorite option of young people like Wichary in a deeply traditionalist country. In the second round, which is played this Sunday in, Confederation voters, whose candidate is no longer in the race, can be decisive to designate the next head of state.
One in three children under 29 years (34.8%), and one in four children under 39 (24.8%), voted Slawomir Mentzen, a collide of the radical and aspiring party in the first round of May 18, according to the polls at the end of the urn of Ipsos. Wojciech Machulshi, spokesman for his campaign and member of the youth of the party (Youth for Freedom), explains that they razed those sections of age because their generation is tired of seeing the same leaders alternate in power for decades. He is 22 years old, Mentzen, 38. Since childhood they have seen the Civic Platform (PO), the Trzawski party that leads Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, and Law and Justice (PIS), which supports Nawrocki, happen in the government. Many young people want a change and, with 14.8% support.
It is a protest vote, against the system, against the elites. As Maciej Górecki, an expert in electoral behavior of the University of Warsaw, explains, there is “a perception between the youth of lack of control.” “They have difficulty accessing a home, they have to combine several jobs, they feel that they are not autonomous … then Mentzen arrives and blames the State. There are problems and he offers easy solutions,” he continues. Although the party has reduced the libertarian tone that attracts the young Wichary, the Confederation collide defends to lower taxes, lose weight the state, to privatize health ,. He even proposed to privatize universities, and although he did not sit well among the students, there are their support. “It is not a rational vote,” says the political scientist.
Many also see Mentzen as a model, according to Górecki. Bachelor of Physics and Doctorate in Economics, the Confederation leader has become a millionaire with a fiscal advisory company and a beer factory. It is one of the characteristics that Nikola Krawczyk, a 19 -year -old girl who has just finished the institute and met Wednesday with this newspaper at a bar in the center of Warsaw to explain the meaning of her vote: “He knows how to earn money and surely can help others do the same.” “Probably, it is not in politics to get rich,” adds Wichary on the same table, adding one more confidence to Mentzen.
The Michal gathering, 22, and a point of graduating in policies, which prefers not to give its last name because it has begun to work in a ministry. He voted for Adrian Zandberg, the second favorite among the youngest. With 18.7% support, it represents the most progressive option, with the Razem Party (together): “I also defend freedom, but only one is really free when you have economic security, and this security has to be provided by the State,” Rebate.
The young Wichary, married, with a child and with the intention of having at least four more, values the proposals for hard hand confederation on the border, to lower taxes, although he still does not have to pay them, to have the option of schooling at home and not paying social security. “It is not moral to pay the treatment of someone’s diseases with the money of another person,” says the theology student, Protestant, who proposes charity as an alternative. Krawczyk, who also does not pay, likes taxes – “not only reduce them, but simplify them” – or prevent Ukraine from entering NATO or EU. On the other hand, he has doubts about the attacks on the EU, to LGTBI rights, and stir when Wichary speaks of further restricting abortion.
Twice as men as women
Confederation vote is mainly masculine. According to Ipsos, this party voted for 19.7% of men compared to 9.8% of women. “Perhaps this is politically incorrect, but I think that biologically women are more inclined to social policies and men want to be responsible for themselves, they are more liberal and do not want the State to tell them what to do,” says Machulshi, who is aware of the scope of invoking biological issues. “A feminist would kill me right now,” he adds after his reasoning. Górecki, who has studied cultural and social reasons, points to Mentzen connects with something more aspirational among men: “having a successful business has more prestige than being a university professor,” says this academic.
Confederation manages social networks very well, especially Tiktok, where young people are reported and entertained. “Our voters do not believe in the media. They think they are liars,” says Machulski, who got into the game with 16 years. These users also notice that traditional parties “do not speak the language of networks fluently, and that is not attractive.” But although the networks have served to grow in that population segment, they have limits to increase their electorate towards older groups: “It is difficult because we do not like the media, but we try to reach them through their children and grandchildren.” Górecki also believes that his extremely traditionalist ideology will prevent them from widening their base.
As Marine Le Pen’s national regrouping, Machulshi explains that the party has done a process of Frommonization. “The most controversial politicians are no longer with us,” he says. Grzegorz Braun, for example, anti -Semitic, antieuropeist, anti -vacacons. The radical politician surprised in the first round when standing in fourth position, with 6.3%, with his new party, Confederation of the Polish Crown.
The sum of Braun’s votes, together with those of Nawrocki and Mentzen, exceed 50%, but if other extreme right marginal candidates are added, the percentage reaches 54%. These data paint a very conservative Poland, strongly inclined to the right, although it was seen as. Everyone shares – with different degrees of hostility, but always at high levels – their rejection of immigration, the rights of the LGTBI collective, to abortion, to green policies, to Brussels, to social aid to Ukrainian refugees. Machulshi presumes that Confederation has made the main matches, including the center’s center of Tusk, have bought some of their toughest positions, for example their rejection of the European green pact and the migratory pact.
Andrzej Rychard, a recognized sociologist from the Polish Academy of Sciences, believes, however, that “the country is directed towards modernity, with higher levels of education and secularization.” “But it doesn’t go fast,” he acknowledges. “There is no increase in the radical right, but a disaffection of the center -left,” he says. The victory of the liberals in 2023, which marked a political turn after eight years of ultraconservative government, was. The breach of some promises that has manifested itself in a fall in the participation of liberals in the first round.
Young people are keys this Sunday. Rychard believes that the Confederation vote, “very heterogeneous”, will mostly go to the Ultraconservator Nawrocki, closer to Mentzen. A part, minority, will be inclined to the Po candidate, and the rest will stay at home, which is what the liberals aspire. Machulshi, Mentzen spokesman, says that a good part of his campaign has focused on attacking the liberal Trzawski, mayor of Warsaw. “We consider you a threat and the system [de poder] He will be complete with him in the presidential palace. It will be a puppet of Tusk. ”In Poland, the head of the State has some key powers, such as the power to veto the legislation or appointment of judges.
Mentzen has not revealed who will vote, but it seems clear that he will not support the liberal candidate. The young Wichary will not, despite the fact that in the economic issues that matters so much, the liberal PO is closer to his thesis than the pee in which the ultraconservative candidate supports, which advocates a policy of redistribution of wealth. In the end, that desire for freedom that said fades when it comes, for example, women’s rights: “Nawocki is a weird uncle, but for me abortion is not negotiable.”
