Dominica Długosz: Secrets of the Presidential Palace

There is no another place as closed as the building in Krakowskie Przedmieście. No another office in Poland is so cut off from reality. The president doesn't even buy milk himself for 5 or 10 years. All he lives is palace games, dramas between ministers, political checkers and conflicts inside the court. alternatively of dealing with matters of state importance, he devotes himself to matters of court importance.

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Chapter I
A terrible palace

* * Oh, * *

The presidential palace is most likely the most closed environment in Poland. There are no random people here, no infidels, no untested. At least at the beginning of his tenure.

This is an environment that perfectly cuts off its primeval from reality and makes it a policy that revolves only among its own. At least from time to time, the Prime Minister has an chance to politically clash with the Sejm's opposition, from time to time on his way he meets dissatisfied voters or voters who were never satisfied with him. The president arrives at the Sejm only 2 or 3 times a year, meets only with leaders of another countries, frequently having the same meaning as he is mainly representative. In almost all presidential run for the second term, there was a powerful surprise of the head of state that he met with criticism and sometimes even with the aggression of the electorate. It's just for 5 years in the palace that you forget that reality is neither pink nor sweet.

The president has a very strong mandate and very small political importance in Poland. Of course, he may effort to play political chess with the government, but in advance he stands in a losing position. Of course, he may not sign the bill, not appoint a judge, general, ambassador or (which the Law and Justice assured himself) prosecutor. But as the practice proves, the government can do without the president, and if it is more efficient and better able to build a narrative, then the president turns out to be a man who not only cannot put aside political sympathy, but is besides simply contentious and petty. And from a petty man to a tiny man, it's very close.

Presidents – whether they managed to regulation at a time erstwhile their organization had power, or if political opponents had just won it – struggled between a sense of pride (deserved) that they gained a powerful mandate and sympathy of more voters than any organization leader, and the conviction that for the organization they had just become political pensioners with whom they did not know what to do erstwhile they finished their term. Plus, there's a fear they won't confirm their position in the next hand. This concern is simply a permanent component of the life of politics, but in the case of the president it is possibly the most severe. All these emotions accompany the president for most of his word and make him more and more locked in his own environment, which guarantees his peace and security. Above all, he appreciates his greatness. In the palace, he's truly something.

One of the palace employees told me that the mechanics of detaching the president from reality always looks the same. A man enters the palace open, friendly, smiling, and then from period to period he closes more and more.

He's starting to realize a fewer things at the same time. First of all, everyone wants something from him. quite a few people show up, starting with old private friends, and on political companions who think that if they call, he'll get them. And frequently he just can't do anything. But they're calling. Then there's bigger things like business that wants something all the time. And then he realizes that everyone around him truly wants to do things for themselves, that it's long gone about any large stuff.

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There is no another place as closed as the building in Krakowskie Przedmieście. No another office in Poland is so cut off from reality. The Prime Minister, ministers, MPs, although they besides live in bubbles of their own environment, however, sometimes at least they return home and gotta go to the settlement for bread. The president doesn't even buy milk himself for 5 or 10 years. All he lives is palace games, dramas between ministers, political checkers and conflicts inside the court. It draws him a small bit like everyday reality and grows to the rank of crucial things. alternatively of dealing with matters of state importance, he devotes himself to matters of court importance. In addition, who is trying to undermine who and why in his surroundings has a real impact on the affairs of the country. Whoever is first in line in the president's ear is of immense importance to his politics.

Additionally, he no longer has the right to privacy to the degree that he even lacks the courage to argue with his wife so that nothing leaks to the media. He is constantly afraid of scandal, but is so bored that he would like to experience something breathtaking from time to time. any romance, adventure, fascination. Or at least a organization that doesn't require a tie or a suit. Each of them, at least sometimes, would like to halt being president.

By their side, there are mostly women who had their lives, their friends, their profession, their company, and they lose it overnight to sit back and stand behind their husband's back. They meet social and non-governmental organizations, but even these meetings are only a courtesy, due to the fact that the first woman can only express her support and has no influence on politics. Yes, there are meetings with the spouses of another presidents, but they are hard to number as social life. It is no wonder that the first woman locked in four, even dignified, walls is sometimes tired and wants to free herself. Actually, all president was the biggest opponent of her husband's second term. Jolanta Kwasniewska and Agata Kornhauser-Duda publically said that they wanted to return to normal, but had to accept the husband's decision. This besides creates tensions between the inhabitants of the palace.

* * Oh, * *

When the president leaves the palace for good, he'll have a cold shower,

Because on the 1 hand, he doesn't get his own life back and he's gonna be a erstwhile president forever. On the another hand, it turns out that by the time only court games occupied him, the deals within his political environment are completely different and the players present neither feel intimidated by his erstwhile position nor intend to give him anything. He's not going back to the organization as a hero. He usually doesn't come back at all. No 1 applauds him, no 1 thanks him.

This is besides painful, due to the fact that the erstwhile president himself inactive feels that with his position, the voices he erstwhile gained, the social trust he had until the very end, all organization post is besides tiny for him. After all, he will not run for the Sejm to go to houses with flyers and sit in the second row behind people who have done nothing, and now they want to give him political instructions. Polish parties were built by their creators so that no erstwhile president has a chance in the election with the leader, and so the ex-presidents do not compete on the heads of their formations either. Founding fresh ones has besides failed so far. The only thing the erstwhile president can do is decision back to the reality commentator position and reminisce about the old size.

* * Oh, * *

It would seem that erstwhile the president has partners on the another side of his own environment, it's easier for him. They value him, they destiny him, they ask his opinion, they consult him. Nothing more wrong. While inactive in the palace, the organization usually shows him that it doesn't substance that he won't set up politics and influence organization decisions. erstwhile he loses the election, he's left alone with that loser.

But even winning doesn't help, and it doesn't supply a place in current politics. Aleksander Kwasniewski left, with inactive very advanced support – in October 2005 sixty-five percent of Poles were satisfied with his presidency. most likely if he could run for his 3rd term, he'd win it too. But after the presidency, it turned out no 1 had any idea. No place was created where the erstwhile president could prove himself. respective times there were ideas that the legislature could be specified an advisory body where erstwhile presidents would be found. But the discussion ended.

The first general elections in 1990 and then the presidency of Lech Wałęsa and all the threats that bring about strengthening the office of the head of state have introduced an extraordinary confusion in our political system. The simultaneous action of a government that brings together almost all political power and the president with an highly strong mandate and ambition must lead to friction. It's simply inevitable. Lech Wałęsa with his lust for power and conviction that he could play the full policy himself and take power from the next prime ministers – he showed voters that the power centered in 1 hand is very dangerous. The next president himself twisted the whip into his own power, due to the fact that Aleksander Kwasniewski was 1 of the authors of the constitution, which effectively limited the presidential role.

Lech Kaczyński's interrupted word showed that as long as the president and the Prime Minister get along, it's okay, and co-habitation is simply a story and a legend. Just before the Smolensk disaster, which tragically interrupted this presidency, the polls showed that Lech Kaczyński could number on twenty-five percent of voters and the second word would be a miracle. In mid-March 2010, I met 1 of the key spins of PiS doctors who then spoke openly: – You gotta lose as much as possible to build a communicative for parliamentary elections in 2011.

[...]

After each president, we, voters, witness the festival of frustration of the outgoing head of state. The tenants of the presidential palace are incapable to find themselves a place on the political stage, and are not yet ready to leave for good with politics.

Dominica Długosz: Secrets of the Presidential Palace, Red and Black, 2025