The TV broadcaster who wants to topple the extremist conservatives

From the young screen star to the star of politics, there is sometimes only one starting point. Donald Trump was the main character on the reality show before he attacked the White House. Volodymyr Zelensky played the role of the president of Ukraine … before he actually became an actor. Perhaps Simon Holonia is as comfortable as he is in front of the camera. Twelve seasons, this host introduced the Polish version of the phone France has an amazing talent. The 44-year-old, with a broad forehead and tiny pale blue eyes, tries to shape national destiny under a brush jar. As the third party in the summer 2020 presidential elections, he established his own party, Poland 2050, with 20-25% of the vote. Six members of the opposition have already joined. “They’re figuring the tide will rise and it should be,” said columnist Constance Geibert. Gazeta and Yborza.

How far will Holonia go? Not very high as one would expect from the influential Law and Justice Party (PiS) Yaroslav Kaczynski, who controls the government and the presidency. Overcoming the third wave of Covid-19 and law and justice has fallen below 30 points in recent polls and may lose an outright majority in Parliament if progress is made in the parliamentary elections scheduled for 2023. These extraordinary numbers are worrying. Within a very conservative movement that has achieved common success since its return to power in 2015. Because its electoral dominance is the basis of reforms that angered Brussels and the Court of Justice. United kingdom. European Union: Turning public television into a propaganda tool, creating anti-gay, bisexual and transgender zones, amending the entire justice system… “We’ve got law and justice in trouble,” as Simon Holonia reiterates in his many speeches on videos.

But it is not his excessive social media activity that worries his opponents. As for law and justice, the danger lurks elsewhere. For the first time, the ruling party, which presents itself as the best defender of Christian values, is facing a devout and demanding Catholic. In her youth, Holonia returned to the priesthood twice before surrender. After studying psychology, he became a journalist, in addition to entertainment programs, he wrote various religious books and presented programs on Religia.tv. Indeed, it has an appealing image of Christian voters who have been burned by the despotic drift of law and justice but pushed back by anti-clerical opposition.

Compete with the rest of your opponents

In order to please as many as possible, Holonia plays a puzzle. An example of abortion, which is forbidden by law in Poland: He personally speaks against it, but promotes the idea of ​​a referendum. In order to save the Polish Church plagued by scandals, it is proposed to financially separate it from the state. “They are both conservative and liberal, filling the political vacuum between the Law and Justice Party and the main opposition party, the Civil Forum,” said Piotr Porras, director of the Warsaw office of the European Council on International Relations.

Currently, this opposition in particular is getting the most votes, especially with this opposition formation being a thorn in opinion polls. And for good reason: there are few differences between the two pro-European movements that want to expose controversial law and justice reforms. Logic also wants them to join forces. “But they find it difficult to work together to take over the leadership of the opposition,” comments Alex Cherbyk, a professor of political science at the University of Sussex (G.-B). As a result, they risk neutralizing each other. It serves the interest of law and justice.

Between now and the upcoming elections, will Holonia’s political adventure end? Possible: Poland is regularly fascinated by quickly forgotten foreigners. Such was the case of rock singer Paul Cookies, who created a party in his name, which today includes six MPs and ranks third in the 2015 presidential election. Despite his amazing talent, the TV presenter is far from the finals.