The candidate springs onto the small stage with two jumps, from whose speakers just “Highway to Hell” and “TNT”, hard rock of the Australian band AC/DC. Sławomir Mentzen also sees itself as a system sprinkler, who is now a “good day, Kraśnik!” Calls over the marketplace of the small town in the southeast of Poland, on which around 500 people gathered this afternoon. And mentists immediately start, address a defeat that he has just collected in court because he had spread lies about Poland’s president in connection with migrants. In front of his audience, he interprets the judgment into a win and makes fun of the judges. That arrives. “He dares something,” is the tenor. In the audience, young people in particular, in the first rows, are almost exclusively pupils who have a lesson. Many are not allowed to choose yet, but they are visibly enthusiastic about the candidate. The mood changes between “Finally something going on in our small town” and “Oh, you too here” encounters. Some wags with “Mentzen 2025” flags that helpers have distributed, others have brought white-red Polish flags with them. Many hold up their cell phones, make selfies or take up videos that they later share on Instagram or Tikok. He is a star on Tikok, a popular platform for short videos. 1.6 million people follow him there, more than all other eleven candidates who compete with him on May 18 in the presidential election. Then the Poles decide who will be the successor Andrzej Dudas, who is no longer allowed to compete after two times. Long it looked as if the new president will also come from one of the Polish politics for 20 years: either from the Liberal-Conservative Field of the Citizens’ Coalition (KO) of President Donald Tusk, who has nominated the Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskovski, Or from the nationalist-conservative spectrum of the party “Law and Justice” (PIS), which competes with historian Karol Nawrocki. But recently, mentists recently pushed in front of the previously placed Nawrocki. This is a shock, especially for the PIS, who wants to defend the presidency after the loss of power in the parliamentary elections two years ago. But also for Trzaskowski, a runoff election against Mentzen would be a high risk. On the autumn of the autumn through Polenden Mentzen, it is deliberately positioning itself as an outsider of the political company, which makes it particularly attractive for disappointed and politicians. Poland of the citizens’ coalition and the PIS would have led Poland into chaos and divided society, explains Mentzen. He, on the other hand, will fill the trenches and the nation again. On one of his Tikok videos he stands in front of a canvas and looks at the (supposed) political chaos in Poland and the world for 20 seconds. Then he turns around, straightens his tie, button up his jacket and continues to move forward, while behind him the Polish flag, his name and the year 2025 are blowing into the picture. He was the first to announce his candidacy for the presidential election. Since then he has been in 249 cities, Kraśnik is the 250th station on Wednesday in early April. On some days he has four appearances in different cities, almost always in rural Poland. “We do this work and invest a lot of time and energy because we want things so much that things in Poland finally change,” he calls. “Because it is so important to us to change this system with which we have been living for so many years and that we fill up.” He scolds the elites in Warsaw, which sold Poland’s sovereignty to Brussels, scourges bureaucracy, a dysfunctional health system, “Ökowahn” and again and again migrants who let both the PIS and the KO go to the country, which is at the expense of the locals. He comes from Thorn (Toruń), studied economy, received his doctorate on the subject of public debt and then started self -employed with a tax consultancy, which also has branches in Gdansk and Warsaw. In his own brewery, he produces “Mentzen beer” and sponsors the football club of his hometown. Long tried to gain a political foothold. He was unsuccessful in the mayor and local elections in Thorn and trying to get to the EU Parliament and the SEJM. It was only in the 2023 elections, as chairman of the confederacja with almost six percent of the votes in a Warsaw constituency, a mandate in the SEJM.Mentz wants to gamble, marijuana and weapons allow their political vision in the sentence “Every Polish family, a grill, two cars” summarized. His election program entitled “Strong, Reiches Poland” comprises 20 points, including the defense of Poland before the influence of the EU and the Polish borders before the “rush of criminals from the Middle East”, the privatization of state companies, the reduction of regulations as well as lower and simpler control. Demoralizers ”. He demands “to radically increase the level of personal freedom” and thus to release gambling, marijuana and weapons and to end the vaccination obligation. In the event of abortions, however, his concept of freedom ends: in his view, they are prohibited even in rapes, and other than in the election campaign two years ago, he waives the demand for the exit of Poland from the EU, but continues to make a targeted mood against Ukrainian refugees, more than a million in Poland. He claims that they would cost the state more than they deposited into the system, which the state development bank has refuted: a large part of the Ukrainians in Poland and pays more contributions and taxes than their compatriots receive on social benefits. “Bandera cult” in the Ukrainian government and tried to exploit the massacre Ukrainian nationalists in the Polish population for its purposes in World War II. And he strictly speaks against Poland’s participation in peacekeepers in Ukraine. Calls show that quite a few sympathizers have difficulties with individuals of his demands, but belief that it will not be so bad outweigh it and the hope of actual change. He attracts his attractiveness primarily from the fact of being different and appearing than everyone else. He gathers behind him craftsmen and medium -sized companies who are annoyed by bureaucracy and taxes, but also people with a university degree who have enough of the polarization between KO and PIS. His voters are mostly male and above all young; In the 2023 parliamentary elections, the Confederacja was by far the strongest force among voters up to 29 years. His followers praise his authenticity; They believe that established parties and the media were in a targeted manner, and therefore defend him. Migrations come up eloquent and humorously that mentus does not occur, but eloquent and humorous, even self -ironic. Because his party has never ruled and he has never had a government office, he can show unlimited clear edge. This distinguishes him from his opponents of Ko and Pis, who are always kept what their parties have done in power. They try to avoid mistakes, and therefore seem rather pale. Nun has made enormous progress since joining the EU, which are also visible in small towns. In Kraśnik, the marketplace is freshly granite, co -financed by the EU, whereupon a sign near the stage of Mentzens indicates. The shops around the square are also lively, there are food, cell phones and flowers as well as glasses and hearing aids. But as in many countries in Europe, the rural regions in Poland have to struggle with emigration and aging. Beautifully painted facades and newly paved roads count as success of the past, while the question “and what will become of us?” dominates. It is not clear whether he will move into the runoff on May 18, but would be a sensation for him. And it could make a decisive contribution to mobilization in the currently rather sluggish election campaign. Migrations are prepared for it, his campaign is highly professional and tightly clocked, its appearances follow the same pattern. After his speech, he quickly makes some selfies and then drives dynamically on an e-scooter to his car parked around the corner. Meanwhile, the students are already posting videos by and with him. You can’t choose it yet, but you can spread your messages for free.
