Jerzy Wenderlich, SLD's deputy speaker of the Sejm, remains aloof from the squabbling over the Smolensk tragedy Courtesy of Jerzy Wenderlich

Ewa Boniecka: After the death of Jerzy Szmajdziński in the Smolensk catastrophe, you were elected deputy speaker of the Sejm in a very different situation than he was in. The left was very weak before Smolensk; after SLD’s better-than-expected presidential campaign, the party is much stronger. What’s your take on this?

Jerzy Wenderlich: My friend Jerzy Szmajdziński and I were active in leftist politics both in the times of SLD’s glory and in the times of its regress. If SLD is now moving upward it is also due to Jerzy’s merits.

When our party is regaining strength, it undoubtedly has more authority among the stronger political partners. And the more support and influence SLD has in our society, the more our voice has to be taken into account, including in parliament.

Yet the political scene is, as before, dominated by Civic Platform (PO) and Law and Justice (PiS), who, after the illusive calm of the campaign period, immediately embarked upon a brutal political war. How do you see the situation?

I see it as those two parties fighting for post-election profit, trying to convince people that there is no alternative to such a war. But I think that the time for this war-like policy will slowly come to an end, because people are tired of parties being concerned only with themselves.

Among the political leaders, only Grzegorz Napieralski is showing – by his behavior and actions – that SLD does not want a Polish-Polish war. And some people, especially from the younger generation, see SLD’s leader as a new authority emerging on the political scene, so our voice against those new battles is appealing to many Poles.

Another battlefront was opened by PiS regarding the Smolensk catastrophe. How far will it go?

In the increasingly brutal confrontation between PiS and PO over the Smolensk catastrophe, the two parties are a good match. On one hand, a politician from PO is talking about “blood on the hands of the dead president,” insinuating [the late Lech Kaczyński’s] moral responsibility for the catastrophe. On the other hand, Jarosław Kaczyński and politicians from PiS are accusing the government of causing the catastrophe and they’re attacking Prime Minister Tusk by inventing stories about things being messed up at the site of the crash and an alleged lack of respect towards the late president’s body.

It is all a disgusting spectacle and a pretext for a political battle over the tragedy, which should be treated with sensitivity and with respect for the victims.

PiS has established a special group of MPs in parliament to investigate the causes of the catastrophe. What do you think of this?

Individual politicians from all parties have the right to establish any groups they wish in the Sejm, so the PiS initiative is formally proper. But I think that the party’s only aim is to gain political profit and escalate the battle over the catastrophe in Smolensk. …

I really can’t imagine what this group’s work will result in, apart from the production of a political show. So SLD is keeping clear of it and we await the results of the formal investigations.

There are rumors in the media about infighting in SLD following Grzegorz Napieralski’s presidential campaign, and Wacław Martyniuk has lost the party secretary post in SLD’s parliamentary club. Is there a purge going on?

There is no purge in SLD and nobody has been harmed. Wacław Martyniuk did not pass a confidence vote and had to leave the post of secretary. In his place, Mr Napieralski has proposed someone whom he is certain will be able to suit his work schedule – Stanisława Prządka.

I want to point out that Grzegorz Napieralski instilled a very fast tempo in his election campaign and worked extremely hard, obtaining a better electoral result than some in our [party] had expected. There is no doubt that it has given SLD a political lift, so Napieralski now has every right to gather around him the people with whom he wants to continue our political march forward. Yet he works well with all the parliamentary club members – including myself, Ryszard Kalisz and Wacław Martyniuk – yet he is assigning each of us different roles in order to use our potential in the most productive way.

Your leader is young and likes to have young people around him. Some observes claim that he is preparing generational changes within SLD, pushing older colleagues into the background …

No such thing. It is not elegant to talk about a woman’s age, but I will tell you that my good friend Stanisława Prządka is much older that Grzegorz. He stresses the value of cooperation between all generations in our party, as well as in our society, and is responding to the needs of both young and older people. We in Poland have to build a real solidarity between generations and Napieralski understands this very well.

It is a general opinion, not just mine, that he has matured immensely as a politician and a party leader and I think that 10 years from now he will be elected president.

Local elections are approaching. Is [erstwhile Agriculture Minister and SLD leader] Wojciech Olejniczak a good candidate for the mayorship of Warsaw?

Whether or not Olejniczak is a good candidate we will see after the election results are counted. … So far Wojciech Olejniczak has not been very active in presenting himself to the people in Warsaw and this is a mistake. In my view it is high time for him to state what he wants to do for Warsaw and its inhabitants, what his vision of the mayorship of our capital city is. And the sooner he starts working as SLD’s candidate, the better for him and for the whole party.

The left is becoming more popular, so if SLD gets good results in the parliamentary election next year you could be a desirable coalition partner …

This is – as we say in Poland – skinning the bear before it’s shot. The election is more than a year away and we will see if PO fulfills its promises and how far the renewed aggressive politics of PiS will go. The masks have fallen off the faces of PiS’s politicians and the sweet words spoken to our leader and SLD during the presidential campaign have been forgotten.

Our program, presented by Grzegorz Napieralski during the campaign – and something which we will evaluate in the parliamentary election – is the only real alternative to the two conservative parties, PO and PiS.

Our program is a synthesis of social and economic proposals and postulates in an ethical domain, and we want to gather a wide range of leftist sympathizers and people from various walks of life around it. …

SLD is now on the move and I expect that we will obtain good results in the upcoming parliamentary election. And in the Sejm we will support all bills moving Poland forward to become a modern European country and oppose those bills we consider to be backward.

Lastly, I would like to ask about your approach to work as deputy speaker of the Sejm. You obviously have a different temperament than Jerzy Szmajdziński had …

Jerzy Szmajdziński valued the meaning of every word, he made decisions after a lot of consideration, his style of behavior and work was very calm and it brought him general respect. I am a much more temperamental person, but if I take over some of Jerzy’s qualities, keeping my temperament at the same time, I hope to do a good job.