Last week, like a bolt from the blue, the news came that Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, was founding a new party.
According to unofficial information, it will include members of the Kukiz'15 group – Marek Jakubiak, Jarosław Sachajko, and Paweł Kukiz.
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Ardanowski establishes a new political grouping
As Sachajko told PAP, this will be a new force in parliament, which – he hopes – will be able to create a club. The group will be presented in two weeks.
After what is happening now, after the ruination of Poland, after this great unemployment, every day we learn about further group layoffs and about companies leaving Poland. There is great public outrage and people want to get involved, said the politician.
As it is unofficially said, the new group wants to attract an electorate disappointed with Law and Justice. We are talking primarily about farmers and entrepreneurs.
What do those interested themselves think about this? Is this a step in which they see hope for Polish agriculture? We ask!
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What do farmers say about this?
As it turns out, many of our interlocutors see the need to introduce more farmers into the structures of the Sejm or European Parliament.
I think that we need to create a force, maybe not a party one, but create such a force that our members, farmers, would simply be in the Sejm or in the European Union to decide about agriculture – argues Stanisław Barna, a farmer from the province. West Pomeranian Voivodeship. – It often happens that people who are not involved in agriculture decide, they come out, they say something and they think it is very good, but without consulting it with farmers, it turns out to be some legal nonsense – he adds.
Farmers hope that the new political grouping will be close to their problems, and that they will finally find understanding and willingness to cooperate there.
The Third Way has shown, this phenomenon of the Third Way in last year's elections showed that there is room between the two camps that dominate the political scene today – argues EMil Miezaj, a farmer from the province. West Pomeranian Voivodeship. – The current state of Third Way is at its own request, but if Ardanowski succeeds, he can really get these dozen or so percent. It's not just about farmers. It's about entrepreneurs, small companies, it's about rural society. This will not affect large cities, but we believe that farmers and small and medium-sized companies will follow it, considering what the political scene looks like – he adds.
Our interlocutors also made no secret of the fact that they saw opportunities for agriculture in the emergence of a new political force. Especially since the political history of Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski clearly shows that he was able to defend farmers regardless of the consequences.
Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski has always been on the side of farmers and preferred to lose his position rather than stand against farmers, so he will always have support from farmers – argues Monika Przeworska from the Institute of Agricultural Economy. – It would be very good to create something around him, to build something. Something that would ensure that Law and Justice, as a very conservative part of our parliament, would find a place for agriculture. I think that the initiative that Ardanowski is creating around agriculture will focus. I have no idea who will cooperate and what this cooperation will look like, but I am convinced that they will definitely be substantive and reasonable people – she adds.
The farmers we talk to are convinced that the creation of a party dealing mainly with the problems of the Polish countryside will be an opportunity to create more reasonable legislation, adequate to the needs of farmers.
We believe that it is very good if someone new appears, a group that is typically agricultural or rural, and also addressed to entrepreneurs – says Damian Murawiec, a farmer from the province. Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. – We have room to act here, to support this group. In the Polish countryside, we don't have much of an alternative as to who we can vote for, because neither the Platform, Third Way, much less the Left or even PiS have an offer for us, he argues.
No one wants to talk about whether our interlocutors, as representatives of the Grassroots National Farmers' Protest, will be interested in joining the newly established group in the future.
Let's see what they can create and what they can offer us, as farmers, they comment. – Above all, we count on close cooperation.
