An enemy of the populists in power in Poland, Mr Donald Tuskhead of the opposition, has been at the center of their rhetoric on the campaign trail for the highly polarized general election tomorrow, Sunday, in which he embodies for them “absolute evil”.

During his recent speech in Katowice (southern Poland), the head of the nationalist government Mateusz Morawiecki mentioned the name of Donald Tusk or his party 40 times, that is, on average once a minute.

Tusk is, according to Morawiecki, guilty of all the problems that plagued Poles when he was prime minister between 2007 and 2014: higher unemployment, lower wages, mass immigration, acceptance of European quotas for accepting immigrants from Middle East.

And his eventual return would be “a disaster” for Poland, claims PiS, which is aiming to secure a third successive government mandate.

According to opinion polls, the PiS (Law and Justice) party is credited with 33-36% of the vote intention, compared to 26-28% for Donald Tusk’s Citizens’ Platform (PO) party. But the final result will depend on the performance of other parties and possible alliances.

“Traitor”

Since the beginning of the election campaign, Tusk’s name has not left the mouths of PiS members.

The former head of the European Council has been branded a “traitor to the nation”, a “coward”, an “ally of Putin” and “evil incarnate”.

Morawiecki accused him of being “the political husband of Angela Merkel”, the former German chancellor, while for PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Tusk is “loyal – but not to Poland, but to Germany”.

His name, accompanied by accusations of all kinds, does not leave the headlines of the news of the public television TVP, which the AFP reports has become a true propaganda tool of power.

TVP guests, who usually support PiS, blame Tusk for all the evil. On the Internet, PiS campaign ads call to “stop Tusk”.

“Persistence”

Unsure of the outcome of the vote, PiS is trying to convince its voters that they are “fighting against a devil”, as it claims.

“This strategy has turned into an obsession, especially the frequency with which Tusk’s name is mentioned,” says Ana Materska-Sosnowska, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw.

“Populists always need an enemy, and for PiS Donald Tusk has become its embodiment,” he adds.

By repeating Tusk’s name a thousand times in a negative context, PiS wants to alienate moderate voters who are important for the outcome of the vote.

“PiS does not propose anything new, but is content to scaremonger by citing the past,” says Materska-Sosnovska.

In its eight years in power, PiS has not stopped repeating: “It’s Tusk’s fault” to explain the economic or social problems it was facing – a phrase that has become proverbial in Poland and is used to ironically emphasize that something is not right. operates.

Yesterday, Thursday, the prime minister described Tusk as a “dangerous man”, who wants to bring, in agreement with the EU, migrants to Poland.

She accused him, without providing any proof, of accepting a new position of responsibility in Brussels in exchange for the green light he gave on immigrants.

Polarization

PiS is taking advantage of the negative image that a significant part of the electorate has for Tusk. More than 50% of Poles do not trust him, compared to 36.1% who do, according to a recent poll by the IBRIS Institute.

This negative electorate continues to dwindle, however, and Tusk himself took over most of his coalition’s election campaign. Going to one election rally after another, he bet on direct contact with voters.

“PiS is fully committed to polarizing society,” Materska-Sosnovska explains.

“This strategy is only partially yielding the expected benefits: certainly PiS is still first in the polls, but it is possible that this will not be enough to form a government,” he adds.