"Slawomir, Slawomir!" chanted several hundred people gathered outside Kalisz town hall, a town of 90,000 inhabitants in western Poland, on Friday, March 7. The hero of this small crowd dominated by men under 40 was Slawomir Mentzen, co-chair of the far-right Konfederacja alliance and candidate in the May 18 and June 1 presidential elections. On the small podium set up for the occasion, elected officials took turns as the candidate arrived from another rally 30 kilometers away. Kalisz was his fourth and last electoral meeting of the day.

"I like him a lot more than our current president [Andrzej Duda]. What he says about Ukrainians abusing Poland's generosity speaks to me," said Elwira Kasprzacka, a security guard, who is also drawn to the tax cuts promised by Konfederacja. Mentzen's candidacy, a 38-year-old entrepreneur who has been sitting in the Sejm, the Polish lower house, since 2023 and is omnipresent on social media, has convinced this lifelong abstainer to vote for the first time in her life. "Like many Poles, I didn’t think it would make any difference," said the 40-something, who could see only one downside: "Konfederacja's leaders think women should stay at home."

While Konfederacja's rhetoric is libertarian in inspiration – advocating for the liberalization of cryptocurrencies and defending freedom of speech "like in the United States" – its liberalism stops short of social issues: As such, the party opposes the right to abortion. However, these topics play a marginal role in the campaign, which is dominated by the issue of border protection. This includes defending them against a potential Russian attack or against the arrival of migrants.

Putting an end to the 'duopoly'

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