WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s main left-wing party was once a major player. It helped bring Poland into the European Union, sent troops to Iraq and let the CIA operate a secret prison for terrorism suspects.
Today, the Democratic Left Alliance — heir to the Cold War-era’s Communists — is fighting for its very existence. Corruption scandals and a failure to inspire young voters have eroded its standing, leaving Poland’s political scene without a viable center-left party.
With presidential and parliamentary elections coming up this year, the left-wing party’s leader, Leszek Miller, has gambled on an unknown and untested presidential candidate to reverse the party’s sharp decline: Magdalena Ogorek, a 36-year-old former bit-part actress and TV presenter with striking good looks — whom some Poles dub a “Barbie” candidate.
While Ogorek has a doctorate in history, she has virtually no political experience.
Miller, 68, said he is counting on her youth and energy to attract new voters to the party, whose ranks include many former communists like himself — a major factor in the party’s decline in this young, Western-looking democracy.
So far the tactic seems to be backfiring. Ogorek has attracted the praise of Playboy and other men’s magazines. Many Poles, even the party’s traditional supporters, say Miller has made the party look foolish by choosing an unknown candidate without political experience to compete for the prestigious position, a job once held by Solidarity founder Lech Walesa.
“This is a disaster — it shows the party has no serious program,” said Stanislaw Mrowczynski, a physics professor who has supported the party in the past but won’t vote for Ogorek. “For me, this is like a cabaret. She isn’t a serious candidate.”
He and many other left-leaning Poles are frustrated because they would like a strong left-wing party to stand up for secular causes in this largely Roman Catholic country.
They say a progressive force is needed to work for a better health care system, women’s rights and other issues of social justice. Instead, the Democratic Left Alliance’s support has dropped from more than 41 percent in 2001 to less than 9 percent in local elections in November.
Ogorek is also facing criticism for failing to take even a single question from journalists since her candidacy was announced in early January.
Many left-wing voters say they will have no choice but to support incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski, a former Solidarity activist and popular leader who is expected to win re-election in the May balloting.
