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Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Polish police officers walk past campaign posters of a member of far-right Confederation party Slawomir Mentzen (R) and Karol Nawrocki (L), candidate for the 2025 Polish presidential election. — AFP pic
WARSAW, May 18 — Polish far-right presidential candidate Slawomir Mentzen, a multi-millionaire entrepreneur popular on social media, is a Eurosceptic libertarian staunchly against abortion and migrants.
The 38-year-old co-leader of the Confederation party wants to put an end to decades of political dominance by Poland’s two main parties, the centrists of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing coalition and the conservatives allied with outgoing President Andrzej Duda.
Mentzen has promised voters “a strong and rich Poland” with low taxes, a solid economy and “watertight borders”. His campaign slogans also include pledges to “stop leftist ideology” and “liberate cryptocurrencies”.
Polling third in opinion surveys with between 10 and 13 percent of the vote, Mentzen trails pro-European Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.
While Mentzen’s chances of making the runoff on June 1 are slim, his voters could play kingmaker. His opponents have already picked up some of his slogans.
The libertarian, who holds a PhD in economics, believes in the free market and is ultra conservative on social issues.
“We don’t want Jews, homosexuals, abortion, taxes and the European Union,” he said in 2019.
He now claims he was only repeating the most radical views found online, and he no longer mentions Jews nor gay people.
But he still speaks of reforming the EU, and his programme also includes opposition to migrants, Ukrainians and abortion.
Hard no on abortion
When asked whether he would accept abortion in cases of rape, he said: “It’s wrong to kill innocent children, even if the child is associated with something disagreeable.”
The statement drew criticism and a slight drop in support in opinion polls.
In the past, Mentzen has also called for prison terms for women who undergo abortions.
While assisting abortion is punishable by jail in Poland—which has a near-total ban on the procedure—no law penalises women if they carry out their own abortion with pills ordered online.
Mentzen has also previously called for Poland to introduce the death penalty for major crimes and says parents should be able to use light corporal punishment to discipline their children.
He says migrants pose a threat to national security, and sees Ukrainian refugees as taking advantage of Poland, which welcomed them with open arms after Russia’s invasion in 2022.
Born in the northern city of Torun, Mentzen comes from a family of mathematicians and has one brother. He is married and has three children.
His paternal great-grandfather was a German who married a Pole. One of their sons—Mentzen’s grandfather—fought in the Polish army against the Nazis during World War II, while the other son fought on the German side.
Mentzen first entered politics in his early 20s when he joined the libertarian party UPR, which later morphed into a group within Confederation.
Craft brewery founder
He left two years later to focus on his studies and embark on a successful career in business.
After taking over a currency exchange, Mentzen ran a gun shop and lobbied for easier access to guns.
He then founded a tax consultancy office, a microbrewery and a pub—all bearing his last name.
Mentzen returned to politics in 2016 and quickly became the co-leader of the Confederation party.
He has been a lawmaker since 2023, when he filed a declaration of assets that said he was a multi-millionaire. Some of his fortune is in Bitcoin.
A social media fan, Mentzen gained a large following by sharing political opinions and tax advice.
He is Poland’s most popular politician online, with more than 1.6 million followers on TikTok, and fan bases of hundreds of thousands on YouTube, Facebook and X.
Mentzen revealed last year he had Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism.
“I’ve always been a little different,” he told TV channel Polsat News. “What I remember is that whatever came easily to my friends was an insurmountable problem for me.” — AFP
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