Speaking at a party convention in the south-central town of Przysucha on Saturday, Kaczyński called for constitutional changes, arguing that Poland needs a new political system to "safeguard the rule of law."
Kaczyński told party delegates that the main goal of PiS, the country's largest opposition group, is to win the 2027 parliamentary elections.
To do so, he said, the party must expand and modernize its internal structures.
'We need something more'
“All political parties in Poland are surrounded by walls," Kaczyński said in Przysucha, a traditional stronghold of the Law and Justice party. "These walls must be broken down. We need something more."
He revealed that his party was working on a centralized, technology-supported system for admitting new members.
Kaczyński also used the event to deliver a scathing assessment of Poland’s political direction.
"Poland must have its own sovereign, democratic and law-abiding state,” he declared, arguing that existing democratic safeguards "are too easily undermined" and must be anchored in a new constitutional order.
He did not outline any specific proposals but disclosed that he has ideas of his own, state news agency PAP reported.
Kaczyński also told the gathering that Poland’s market economy should be based on private ownership, but added that state regulation and some state ownership remain necessary, especially in the absence of "strong "domestic capital tied to Polish national interests."
Kaczyński also offered his view on why PiS lost its parliamentary majority in 2023. He cited the COVID-19 pandemic, a controversial Constitutional Tribunal ruling on abortion, the war in Ukraine and associated hybrid threats, inflation, and a visa scandal as key factors that contributed to a decline in public support.
Delegates at the convention voted to renew Kaczyński's mandate as party leader, the PAP news agency reported.
Earlier this month, the PiS party retained control of the presidency after Karol Nawrocki, a Euroskeptic backed by Kaczyński and inspired by US President Donald Trump, narrowly defeated centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski in a June 1 runoff, according to final results from the National Electoral Commission.
Nawrocki is set to be sworn in on August 6, succeeding outgoing conservative President Andrzej Duda.
'National patriotic camp' unites
PiS, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023, merged last year with its smaller ally Sovereign Poland in what Kaczyński described as a move designed to show voters that "the national patriotic camp is uniting."
Meanwhile, Poland’s ruling coalition, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, is regrouping after failing to recapture the presidency from the opposition.
Tusk’s government was formed in 2023 after a bloc of parties led by his centrist-liberal Civic Coalition (KO) won a parliamentary majority in that year’s general election.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP