We are talking to voters of Rafał Trzaskowski. “I will not say that the PiS did nothing good”

“Nobody was bothered that I was Catholic”

She was 20 years old, finished with a method school and working at the local melioration office. abruptly there was an chance to leave. The Association of Agricultural Engineers and Engineers, which she belonged to, collaborated with the American organization and sent people to practice overseas.

She never even thought of that before. But she heard and volunteered. The American female who came here to talk to the candidates liked her. She got in.

In order to have money for a ticket, she sold the land she inherited under Sokolov Podlaski after her dead parents. A small extra money from my aunt and a young technician went to the States for a year. She worked in flower greenhouses at a farm in Pennsylvania.

— I've met different people, black and white and yellow. That's where everyone could talk to each other. It shaped me. No 1 bothered that I was Catholic and he was a Protestant. I lived with Mennonites, and I worked with Baptists. I even visited Amishes at their farms. I've been to all the possible churches. My friends were happy to take me there on Sundays, she says.

When she left for America, she didn't know precisely English. “ At first, I went out with specified a tiny vocabulary, showed something for flashes. After a year, I learned. I went to a Mennonite school at the end and told my children about Poland,” he recalls.

— Tell me, isn’t man lucky?’ “I had no thought about the planet before.

But how does it all relate to Polish politics in 2025? “I know people and I know that Trzaskowski could find himself in a unusual environment. Just as I found myself in it, explains Bogusława. — He could accept things. I besides learned to accept more erstwhile I got back.

Older, educated, from large centres

When the voters are divided into age groups, the oldest ones are the most in the electorate of Rafał Trzaskowski. Those who were 65 years of age account for almost a 3rd of the population, as 29 percent, according to a March 2025 CBOS survey. This is more than the demography would propose — the share of seniors in society is 25 percent.

PAP/Jerzy Muszyński

Rafał Trzaskowski gathering with voters in Goleniów

The same survey shows that it is hard to draw a image of the typical voters of Trzaskovsky. The Citizen Coalition candidate finds support in various groups. However, statistic show any overrepresentation of people with higher education – 40 percent of the voters of Trzaskowski, while in general Poles of specified people are 33 percent.

It is besides a bit more popular for the inhabitants of the largest cities, those with over 500,000 inhabitants. It is 15 percent of the voters of Trzaskowski – while the metropolises live in 12 percent of the people in Poland.

“Trzaskowski will not be an orphan in company”

Andrzej and I meet at a cafe in the centre of Warsaw. He came here on a tram. “Communication works truly well. Not that I'm happy with everything, but Trzaskowski got to know me from a good point of view in Warsaw,” she notes.

A 70-year-old has lived in the capital since birth. He worked as a scientist at the Institute of Industrial Chemistry, engaged in chemical and process engineering. “ I am alternatively a humanist, ” he says.

The reasons for his support for Trzaskowski do not boil down to successful public transport. Andrzej to KO politics has been convinced for a long time. He knew he would vote for him as shortly as he announced his candidacy.

— First, I would like to halt being ashamed of our presidents,” explains a retired chemist. — The president is from representing and guarding the Constitution. It is good for him to be a cultural man, to have a real education. I think that if I met Trzaskowski for coffee, it would not be painful for me, and it might even be interesting. Trzaskowski is intelligent, speaks of abroad languages, has met any of the world. She turns around and she won't be an orphan.

— Worldview issues are besides crucial to me. specified a general snout, he continues. “ Nationalism has led to 2 wars. Poland was powerful erstwhile it was multinational and tolerant. It's good to know.

I note that there are more candidates at stake who are far from nationalism: Simon Holovnia, Adrian Zandberg, Magdalena Biejat. Andrew answers: — They They have so small chance.That voting for them will only weaken that candidate who can actually win against nationalists. If these odds were equal, possibly I'd start wondering. But not now. Nawrocki's triumph or Mentzen's is simply a frightening imagination to me.

Disco polo doesn't dance

The chemist spares no criticism of Law and Justice. 8 years of the party's regulation is as bad as possible. “It was a restoration of the atmosphere of Gomulka. Complete invasion of the country. All positions have been politicized. Even my friend, who is the pool manager, feared that he would lose his job, he explains.

He stresses that he was never part of any party. He was not in the PZPR, “Solidarity” supported, but he did not sign up for it, although his colleagues at the Institute powerfully encouraged him. He has clear preferences. He has been voting for the Civic Platform practically since the beginning of its existence. He besides voted in the last election in 2023. Which doesn't mean he likes everything in the current government.

— I had no illusions that they would change besides much over the past year and a half. — My pain is the most failure to repair the courts. Plus the recovery of public tv in specified a way and not in another way It was pathetic. They talked about valorizing pensions twice a year, but I realized it could be inserted between fairy tales. On the affirmative side, they have sealed the state's finances somewhat. And they strengthened Poland's position in the European Union.

He adds: “The president should have the facilities, so I consider Trzaskowski’s relation with KO and the government alternatively positive. I'm not a child, and I know that an absolutely independent candidate does not be at the moment.

Adam Warżawa / PAP

Rafał Trzaskowski and Donald Tusk in Sopot on May 1

Although the way these unions translate into a campaign, raises his objection. According to Andrzej, the ruling organization helps Trzaskowski besides little. “The Civic Platform mostly has a problem with that. Bronisław Komorowski's run was very bad, Rafał Trzaskowski's run is bad, he says. Why? “Trzaskowski loses erstwhile he pretends to be individual another than he is. This is not the man who disco polo dance And he goes after games. If individual wants to be a friend of the world, they become a friend of no one.

I'm asking Andrew what he's afraid of. First, he talks about war and Putin trying to rebuild the russian Union. In the second, social dissection.

Didn't the Law and Justice government do a fewer things to reduce this dissection? - No, no, no. They were fake moves,” says Andrew. - possibly even if 500 plus goes to the poorest. But it's not. We inactive have exclusion in poorer regions, especially communication. Plus, we're late for transmission lines. We request billions to fix our power lines. Not quite a few people talk about it but for any simple password.

I remember that many people who I'm asking for concerns about the election, talking about migrants. “I am not afraid of them. ” “A lot of Poles from my generation left and were refugees too. It would be good to remember that.

A voice for deficiency of lactate

The CBOS survey already cited shows that the inhabitants of the village play a comparatively tiny function in the Trzaskowski electorate. That's 33 percent of all his voters. For comparison, in the case of Karol Nawrocki it is as much as 46 percent electorate. There is besides a disparity for people from little than 20,000 cities.

Sociologists indicate that statistic by place of residence may be misleading in Poland. A large part of the village is alternatively a suburb where people working in large centres move. And they are inactive connected with large centres in terms of lifestyle and political preferences.

Marcin Terlik / Onet

Baner Rafał Trzaskowski in Siedlce

I am looking for the voters of Trzaskowski in the east of Łódź Voivodeship. It's hard to talk about suburbs, even distant ones. Both Łódź and Warsaw are about 70 km from here.

Baners with a akin policy of the civilian Coalition are few. On The barrier is dominated by Karol NawrockiThere's quite a few Sławomir Mentzen and any of Grzegorz Braun.

One of the followers of Trzaskowski I meet on the street in the 3 1000 White Rawska. — There is no 1 to vote for but him. The another candidates are weak. So Trzaskowski comes out a small bit out of deficiency of lactate. I like that he is president of Warsaw,” he says. He adds: “I am from here, but I lived in Warsaw for many years. someway I inactive feel connected to her.

At the election of the candidate KO I besides find myself in the close village. “ My husband and I have been behind Tusk for a long time. Although the full village is behind Nawrock. First of all, I don't like this publication. All these 500 pluses, he explains. Why doesn't she like it? “This money is not for children, it is for people to drink it. I know a fewer of them. And here, and under Warsaw, where we utilized to live, he says.

“I will not say that the PiS did nothing good”

The memories of Boguslawa are interrupted by a small granddaughter. She calls her grandma due to the fact that her show started on TV. But Grandma doesn't want to finish the conversation yet.

We're moving back to the old days. “The strategy was as it was, but they helped people. They paid for the crossings. I graduated from method school, although I came from the village and was an orphan since I was 15. I don’t know if I could handle it today, but Bogusława wonders.

— We inactive request to pull a small more towards social services. There are inactive quite a few mediocre people in Poland. But you can’t do like the Law and Justices that he gave only to his own,” he notes.

- 500 plus everybody.

— It's true. And I liked that. I think 500 plus truly helped families. I'm not saying the PiS didn't do any good. But there were besides many catchy people out there, they got besides distracted. And they humiliated others besides much. That's where they went.

— And these courts, they're corrupting the laws, he adds. “ Besides, the Law and Justice have isolated themselves from abroad. They were all enemies, and you gotta talk to the enemy sometimes. So that it's in our favor.

Three Sisters Divided by Politics

Bogusława admits that there are many supporters of Law and Justice in the area. In Hungary alone in 2023, Jarosław Kaczyński's organization won over 40% of the vote. In the local district, over 53% of the year ago, Andrzej Duda won both tours here in the round.

— At 1 point, our Hungarians were left without a factory, and everything started to collapse. There utilized to be a plant that produced phones, electronics, and quite a few people worked there. Then the German company took over. There were another bets now, but there were times erstwhile work wasn't here. quite a few people got distant from here, says the pensioner.

He points out that the political line of division runs across her immediate family. 2 sisters vote for the PiS. “ Sometimes we will have a large fight about it. The next day, we make up. These are my sisters, I love them, and I forgive them all, but I can’t realize them,” he stresses.

Moments earlier, people in the area convinced me that the president and the Prime Minister should not be from 1 party. That would be besides much power in the hands of the Platform. Boguslawa disagrees. I like this government. He's focused on the future and he doesn't look back. My sister tells me, “but history, history.” And I ask her: “All right, would you like to wash now? Why are you washing in the washing device and the automatic one?’

— And it is good that there is simply a coalition — he estimates. “If there were 1 party, she would most likely regulation more drasticly. And so, if any of the stronger ones get besides strong, the smaller 1 says, "Holly, holly, we can go."

We go back to a candidate who hangs on a barrier with a black marker. — The Trzask Program? I like it, too. I'm Catholic, but I'm not overreacting. I do not walk with a rosary on the street as any do, says Bogusława.

— I pray, but in peace, peace. I like moderation. And I like people who are unintelligible in their views,” he adds.

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