Onet Sources Suggests Jaroslaw Kaczynski Could Step Down As Party Leader In Early 2025

Onet cites unnamed sources as noting that Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski told his aides that he would step down in early 2025 and would not designate a successor, setting the stage for a heated contest among senior party officials. The rivalry between Kaczynski and current Prime Minister Donald Tusk has been one of the main factors defining Polish politics over the past two decades.

• The list of potential successors includes the perceived leaders of three informal factions within the party. Ex-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki represents the liberal/technocratic wing, ex-Defence Minister Mariusz Blaszczak represents the party's current establishment, while ex-Education Minister Przemyslaw Czarnek leads PiS's right wing. Popular ex-Prime Minister and current MEP Beata Szydlo has also been mentioned among potential successors.
• Morawiecki threw his hat into the race last week, which may have been a strategic mistake. Kaczynski reportedly deemed it a false start amid his conviction that the party should maintain unity after a lost election which threw PiS into disarray. Covert tensions resurfaced last week as Czarnek led a backbench revolt against parliamentary club chief Blaszczak, forcing him to change voting instructions on the withdrawal of parliamentary immunity of far-right MP Grzegorz Braun. The outcome testified to Czarnek's growing influence within the party.
• Tensions within the PiS camp also involve President Andrzej Duda, who took office as the party's candidate in 2015. Kaczynski suggested that he was expecting Duda to fast-track the pardoning of two convicted PiS lawmakers rather than use a longer procedure. WP.pl reports that has been disappointment within the party about the President's decision, even as recent unofficial signals suggest that the procedure could be completed within the coming days amid concerns over the health of one of the officials who is on hunger strike.
• Criticising Kaczynski's comments this morning, Duda's chief aide Marcin Mastalerek said that "knowing chairman Kaczynski" he did not believe that he could resign, noting that similar allusions have been made in the past and never came into fruition. The Onet piece notes that some PiS officials are still lobbying Kaczynski to stay on for another term, seeing him as a guarantee of stability within the party. Ex-Deputy Prime Minister and PiS veteran Jacek Sasin subscribed to this view this morning, warning any potential candidates for party leadership to show restraint.