Putin’s Confederates in Poland

The United “Confederation” is an alliance of three political groups, representing a mix of nationalists, Catholics, and libertarians. The club includes parties New Hope, National Movement and Confederation of the Polish Crown.

New Hope

The first party on the list is the New Hope, which, until December 2022, was known as the Confederation for the Renewal of the Republic of Freedom and Hope or KORWiN (pol. Konfederacja Odnowy Rzeczypospolitej Wolność i Nadzieja). The party was founded by Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who was pushed out by the current party leader, Slawomir Mentzen.

Janusz Korwin-Mikke, aged 81, is known for his anti-Ukrainian views and scandalous antics. At the post of MEP, from 2014 to 2018, he publicly referred to women as “stupid creatures” who should serve men, and raised his hand in a Nazi salute in front of TV cameras.

In 2015, he visited the Ukrainian Crimea annexed by Russia, called the “DNR” & “LNR” full-fledged states, and spread Russian narratives about the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. Janusz Korvin-Mikke met with the head of the local occupation administration, Sergey Aksyonov, and gave interviews to Russian propaganda TV channels. He declared that Crimean Tatars have never had a better life than after the so-called “annexation” of the peninsula. Consequently, Korvin-Mikke became the subject of a criminal investigation by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office.

The party replaced the elderly Korvin-Mikke with a young leader – Slavomir Mentzen. The young leader of the New Hope supports strengthening abortion laws, simplifying gun ownership and reintroducing the death penalty. “We don’t want Jews, gays, abortions, taxes, and the European Union.”

National Movement

For a long time, the Kremlin was searching for someone to lean on in Poland, and finally found support in a new generation of so-called far-right populists. One of them is Krzysztof Bosak, chairman of the National Movement party and leader of the united far-right Confederation. He is also head of the same-name faction in the Polish Seym.

Bosak became interested in politics at the age of 18, when he joined the All-Polish Youth movement. However, for years, his biggest achievement was winning a seat in the Seym in the by-election in Zielona Góra in 2005.

Then, from 2007 to 2013, he lost one election after another, was involved in numerous scandals and constantly searched for new political associates. In the end, Bosak joined the National Movement. The party did get into the Seym in 2015, but only thanks to a coalition with stronger partners. In 2017 National Movement was excluded from the official register of political parties for document fraud.

Everything changed in 2018: Bosak’s political force entered into a coalition with the New Hope.

Therefore, the second group of the United Confederation is the National Movement party, which emerged in the early 2000s during the organisation of the Independence Marches. Nationalist Independence Marches are held every year in Poland on 11 November, the anniversary of the restoration of the country’s independence in 1918.

Research indicates that the party has a low level of support, but there are several hundred active members who are effective within the structure. Krzysztof Bosak is one of them.

Confederation of the Crown

The third group is the Confederation of the Polish Crown. Its leader, Grzegorz Braun, is a former film director with a wide variety of views on political issues. Among Brown supporters are anti-vaccination, alter-globalists, and some pro-Russian Poles. Grzegorz is the man who stays up at night trying to stop the “Banderisation of Poland” and declares that “we will not be taught history by Germans and Jews.”  Furthermore, he turned out to be the only MP who did not vote for a resolution in the Seym asking the EU and NATO to help Ukraine in its war against Russia.

There’s no information about Brown’s funding sources. His party has opened 40 or more bank accounts. Brown is surrounded by individuals who were excluded from the “Confederation”, including controversial anti-Ukrainian and pro-Russian figures. For example, Leszek Sykulski, the founder of the anti-war movement. Sykulsky remained a long-time candidate for the “Confederation,” but has been suspended recently.

In 2022, the Confederation of the Polish Crown presented a brochure called “Stop Ukrainisation of Poland”. On the 20th of July in the same year, the party organised a youth conference where its representatives expressed their opposition to the display of Ukrainian flags on buses and trams in Wroclaw.

It is noteworthy that former Polish Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz stated that the Confederation Party headed by Brown was a “Russian party” in the Polish parliament and was acting as a Russian fifth column.

During her speech, Malgorzata Gosiewska, the vice-president of the Polish Seym, referred to Brown as a “Russian grandchild” and inquired whether he still prays in Polish or has switched to Russian.

Observers noticed extremely high spending by the United “Confederation” on political advertising for the 2019 Seym elections. Particularly significant sums were invested by Bosak and Korvin-Mikke in social media ads.

The Polish far-right recently began to praise the friendship with Russia even more, and to criticise Europe even more. They use the means of communication that are popular with young people, for example, TikTok.

The slogan repeated by one of the United Confederation leaders Slawomir Mentzen: “When the ‘Confederation’ comes to power, every Pole and every Polish woman will be able to afford a grill, two cars, a house and a holiday.”