"Same Face, Switch Place": Polish Candidate's Purpose to Break Bipartisan Power | Poland

Hidden in the charming market square in central Poland, a bar offers the closest physical experience to access the internet.

Inconsistently stretching out in Torun's medieval basement, Torun's Menson feels like In an online political diet designed by someone. As you enter, the gallery’s walls show photos of “customers we don’t serve”, but it doesn’t have loud customers, but Polish political leaders, including at least five prime ministers.

The Wall filed a surreal prosecution against the country's political elite. There is a "Meme Museum", an explosion-breaking, forged "large amount of Złoty" banknote, facing the face of the former prime minister, and a gilded figure with a begging bowl. In the toilet, you will listen to weird speeches from Donald Tusk speaking German and other Polish politicians.

If the bar is not owned by Sławomir Mentzen, the bar can be dismissed, a tax adviser turned into a liberal far-right Konfederacja (Federal) party, which ranked third in the Sunday presidential election held in Europe's sixth largest economy this Sunday.

This is not only a commercial enterprise, but also an expression of his politics.

Toruń's Pub en the "Meme Museum" display. Photo: Jakub Krupa/Guardian

Mentzen, 38, came to his hometown, and about 400 people gathered in the rain, with shotguns involving taxes, political elites, public services, EU regulations, immigration, green policies and the general state of the world.

He first published in 2019 infamously, showing the “Five”: “We don’t want Jews, gays, abortions, taxes and the EU.” He has since kept a distance from the list, but is still within the far-right range. In the courage of Donald Trump, he tried to transform his unfiltered language, such as his criticism of Polish Ukrainians, into political power.

His rise as a candidate for "common sense" - capturing the dissatisfaction of young male voters and having 1.6 million followers on Tiktok - allowed him to briefly challenge mainstream conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki to finish second in the polls. Recent comments on abortion and tuition have reversed most of his gains, but in the weeks of voting, he is working to secure a double-digit share of the vote.

After completing 348 rallies, he opposed two monopolies between the country’s two major political parties in a wonderful speech: Donald Tusk’s Central Citizen Platform (PO) and jarosława Law Kaczyński, the political rulers of the country since 2005, who occupied the two frons in two prevalent prevalences. Warsaw mayor, RafałTrzaskowski and Nawrocki.

“How long can we wait for change for God’s sake?” Grzegorz Płaczek of Konfederacja MP told The Guardian. "This is the same face, just exchanged places."

This anti-establishment rhetoric resonates. In the country's post-1989 history, there has never been a combined share that was previously predicted by the first two candidates.

"PIS is far from detoxifying after eight years in power, and POs are seen as responsible for the government's lack of ambition for key areas of young voters, especially abortion and housing," said Ben Stanley, a sociologist and political scientist at SWPS University in Warsaw. "This makes race more open."

Adrian Zandberg speaks in Warsaw. Photo: Paweł Supernak/EPA

Another challenger looking to break the double monopoly is Adrian Zandberg. Born in Denmark and a Polish parent, the 45-year-old is a towering figure – literally nicknamed “The Powerful Danes” – with a voice and a left-wing socialist perspective.

In the last parliamentary elections in 2023, his party, Razem (together) was part of the opposition PIS coalition, but refused to join the government because it didn't feel it provided the tools to deliver on its promises to voters.

Now, he is “angry in the tent” and has become a cruel reviewer for “two 70-year-old men,” who says disputes that have nothing to do with young voters are in trouble.

Speaking about 800 people near the University of Warsaw on Wednesday, he focused on the immediate challenges faced by audiences such as housing and health care and Poland’s long-term ambitions.

He spoke in an urgent, angry tone - when he thought of the previous government's trail, the crowd yelled "shame" - and urged voters to support "Poland made of nuclear power, silicon and steel, not plywood".

He rejected a label that puts his point of view, saying recently: “I’m not very interested in the term ‘left’ and more interested in prosocial and liberal changes.”

"For this 'fulthem them' voter, the response to duopoly ... the ideological profile is not important," said Aleks Szczerbiak, a political professor at the University of Sussex.

Maciej Konieczny, a Razem MP at Zandberg, said the left’s response to the far right needs to go beyond the “old left aesthetic”, adding: “Young people may not address political views, but they can smell clumsy and hope (politics) is something.

“And we’re very credible: because we actually refuse to play.”

"Something is changing": Poland's voters on key issues in presidential elections - Video

Polls published before the country fell into election silence on Friday night showed Manzson and Zandberg would receive nearly half of the votes in the under-35 streets, which were before the established candidates.

While perceptions of immigration and abortion are polarized, some of their voters have even suggested that they see themselves voting for other candidates, rather than mainstream parties.

When asked about these views at the Zandberg rally, Angelika was not surprised to be a "maternity leave exerciser".

“The young voters of Sandberg and Manzsson want to get something similar: to be stable and live a dignified life,” she said, with the solution she proposed was largely incompatible. “Instead, we got this ping pong ball from PO and PIS.”

Two candidates can get a total of 20% of the vote share on Sunday. This will force two mainstream candidates who are expected to go to runoff, at least considering how to sue their supporters.

If they fail, they will also end up on the wall of Pub Mentzen. And the 2027 parliamentary elections are two years away, and there is no place for anger.