PiS's Grażyna Gęsicka believes her party is ready to govern again Courtesy of Grażyna Gęsicka

Ewa Boniecka: In your first statement after becoming head of PiS’s parliamentary club, you stressed that you wanted to start working on substantive matters, which raised hopes that we would see a less abrasive atmosphere in Parliament. Can you elaborate?

Grażyna Gęsicka: My remarks were not addressed to our club, but to all of Parliament and to all parliamentary clubs. Because even if I can make our huge club – with almost 200 members – behave politely, the parliamentary debates will remain the same if other clubs still use cheap slogans and offer abuse.

What I had in mind was to appeal for serious and responsible debates about the major problems facing our country, not [debates] full of personal invectives.

Your appointment seems to indicate that PiS is searching for a new working model and wants to improve its bad image, which – according to [party leader] Jarosław Kaczyński – has been created by the “hostile media.” Do you agree?

We do not focus on attacking the media, although PiS is sometimes described in some media in a biased way and thus a false stereotype is pinned on us. I am in favor of responding [to such reports] by taking concrete action. Thus I am concentrating on parliamentary work.

We carefully monitor all the government’s doings and present our stance on every matter undertaken by it. The members of our club work very efficiently in various parliamentary commissions, proposing important amendments to draft legislation and making public statements about the [legislative] context.

During the past two years we have presented 150 draft bills, all of which were frozen by the marshall of the Sejm. I think there were too many bills and I do not want to follow my predecessor’s practice. I prefer to present a few bills which will have a chance to gain the support of other clubs so that our work will not be completely wasted. For instance, our party is going to present a bill dealing with internet access for people in small towns and villages who are often excluded from the process of informatization.

Your party has established its own shadow cabinet, which is currently preparing PiS’s election platform for your party congress in March. What are the main tenets of that platform?

The general idea is to build an efficient state. In Poland we currently have a situation where state organs are not effective at top levels, and at the same time ordinary people are often the victims of legal, administrative and bureaucratic systems and are persecuted – as happened recently – for things like collecting a bit of brushwood from a nearby forest to heat the house. Meanwhile, top politicians from the ruling party are mixing with shadowy businessmen and trying to manipulate the legislative process, as [last year’s] gambling scandal indicates.

We want to get rid of bad habits and corruption and get our state organs to perform their duties in the right way. This is fundamental to all our proposals.

What are PiS’s economic proposals?

In my view it is necessary to clear away the many legal and administrative barriers which have arisen in our economic landscape during the growth of capitalism, as these are obstacles to further development. PiS does not want more state intervention in the economy, but where there are strategic interests and public ownership involved we want transparent rules.

We want, for instance, to establish a permanent list of state-owned companies which will not be privatized. Something very important is our draft bill on the freedom of business activity, because the one we have now does not function and that famous “one-stop shop” for starting businesses is a total illusion.

Our direction is to move towards a more liberal market and to build sufficient infrastructure, especially in underdeveloped regions. There are also very intensive legislative projects dealing with social areas. People have a right to know about our proposals and that we are ready to govern.

One of Civic Platform’s [PO] main problems is that they promised a lot – miracles even – but did not have any legislation prepared in order to implement their promises after taking power. We want to be fully prepared to do so.

Jarosław Kaczyński has presented a plan for a new constitution, claiming it would be the foundation for rebuilding the “Fourth Republic of Poland.” Don’t you think that voters are tired of the “Fourth Republic” concept, having already rejected it during the last election?

I think that it is a question for the leader of our party, Jarosław Kaczyński. But I can offer my opinion on the matter – [I think] the new constitution represents the position of the furthest-right members of our conservative party. And this project has raised controversy within the party, as well as among our supporters, because there are passages which not everyone would be willing to endorse.

Opinions polls show that PO remains in the lead, despite the government’s difficulties. On what basis do you believe that PiS can win power?

Political sympathies are not etched in stone. People like to hear nice promises, like the ones PO made. And PO is a master at making promises and has for a very long time been given the benefit of the doubt.

But the situation is changing and it is increasingly evident that the people are beginning to examine what PO has done in power. And they see that among the many promises [Prime Minister] Donald Tusk made during the previous campaign, only one – withdrawing Polish troops from Iraq – has been realized. Nor does it look like PO will fulfill its current promises about making grand reforms.

So I think that people are beginning to think that they want a reliable, predictable leader in power and a party which will keep its promises. And Law and Justice and its leader fit such descriptions.

How will PiS’s parliamentary club be involved in the upcoming elections?

Our parliamentary club has other duties and is not an election machine. The party itself can spend money on elections, not us.

But I know that some of our members and senators are interested in running in the local government elections. I support this, because I think that people who have experience at various levels of central government and know how it ticks can be very helpful. At the same time, from our club’s perspective I think that it would be good for our work if new people replaced those elected to local government posts, to give us a fresh team of dynamic, competitive members.

What about your own ambitions? Would you like to be deputy prime minister and economy minister if PiS were to take power?

I don’t think about that. I have had a meaningful career and I am a completely satisfied person.