WARSAW — “How many galaxies will you conquer?” one student asks at a campaign meeting.
“All of them!” replies Joanna Senyszyn.
I ask the Gen Z voters what attracts them to this unlikely candidate for the Polish presidency. The hall where her campaign event is being held is filled to the brim. The age range is from 15 to 80, but there are visibly more young people several days before Sunday’s presidential election.
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Behind the table is Joanna Senyszyn, a 76-year-old economics professor. Dressed in black with three strings of red wooden beads that embody her persona. In the past, a member of the Polish United Workers’ Party (PZPR). For years, an important MP of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD). Now an independent candidate in this year’s presidential elections. And an icon for much of Gen Z, to boot.
Senyszyn greets the audience as she does at the beginning of every debate in this campaign, raising both hands and adding in a characteristic voice: “My Dears!” It is a gesture she first made many years ago at a meeting of SLD members. “Later, John Paul II copied it from me,” she laughs, referring to the famous gesture often made by the Polish pope.
The audience asks whether, if she wins the election, she plans to come to an agreement with the divided ruling coalition. “If I become president, and I think I will, because it would be the best for Poland, ” Senyszyn begins with a broad smile, and the audience erupts in thunderous applause. “I would talk to the government.”
A mother of the youth movement
“And what if we assume the negative scenario, that you won’t make it to the Presidential Palace? Where do you see yourself in a few years?” another member of the audience asks.
“Before [the first round of voting on] May 18, let the living not lose hope. But I don’t want to take over the [New Left] party, because the ‘czarzasties’ are too demoralized.” That’s what Senyszyn calls the New Left, a group led by Włodzimierz Czarzasty, her long-time colleague from the SLD.
She doesn’t spare him malice. When she left the party, she said that she would no longer tolerate what she calls his hypocrisy and dictatorial practices.
For Senyszyn, the “czarzasties” are linguistically distorted, striving only for civil partnerships and social liberalism, rather than what she calls true leftist causes. “We have allowed ourselves, as a society, to be convinced that LGBT people want some special rights, while in fact they want exactly the same rights as others,” Senyszyn says in response to a question about same-sex marriage asked by Mikołaj, a law student.
Senyszyn can be a mother, a mentor and an ideological leader.
Senyszyn adds that she is thinking about creating her own movement. “It would have to be created by the young generation. I would love to be a mother. I don’t have children of my own, so there will be no problem that you love your own children a little more. I will love them all equally. But I will not be an empress, because I would see this movement as a democratic party,” she says.
‘The slogan about the mother is cool, inclusive. And it shows that she wants to unite the quarreling tribes,” the young participants tell me after the meeting.
“Senyszyn is a woman with life experience, who can be a mother, a mentor and an ideological leader,” says Mateusz, who also a participant in the event.
Joanna Senyszyn, the queen of memes too? — Source: Official Facebook account
An empress of social media
What is the origin of the term “empress,” which the candidate herself used? This is what Instagram and TikTok users from Gen Z call Senyszyn, in reference to her trademark pose, where she raises her arms in the air. Compilations of her statements, their adaptations and memes flooded social media after the politician’s appearances in the presidential debates. It has become a trend on TikTok to equate the number of red beads around her neck with the number of galaxies Senyszyn has conquered.
“My brother’s dream is to get one of your beads,” one of the meeting participants says. And Senyszyn immediately takes off one of the red beads and says: “One galaxy goes to someone else.”
Why vote for a joke candidate in this election?
She skillfully uses her popularity on social media, publishing reels and posts with memes about herself on her Instagram page. I browse her board and find, among other things, a muscular figure with Senyszyn’s head and the caption: “I have balls of steel.” Or a reel edited from her photos set to the A$AP Rocky song “Praise the Lord.”
As she confessed after the meeting with her supporters, she runs her Instagram account herself. “Sometimes someone sends me these memes, sometimes I make them myself. I worked in political marketing for three years, so I know what I’m doing,” she says.
Her Instagram profile has 100,000 followers. Senyszyn presents herself there as “a woman who does not bow to the Church, an atheist, a feminist, a professor, a member of parliament, a member of the European Parliament and a defender of the oppressed.
On TikTok, her account has 91,000 followers and 2 million likes. The most popular post has 5 million views. The politician dances on it with characteristically raised hands to a song with the refrain: “Vote for Senyszyn”.
“TikTok empress” Joanna Senyszyn — Source: Official account
A serious candidate?
I spoke with young people who came to meet Senyszyn. They are all of college age. “Some young voters, charmed by her creativity, will vote for her,” Mateusz says.
I keep digging: Why vote for a joke candidate in this election?
“The first round will be a popularity contest, and Senyszyn speaks with her image. I can show that my candidate, or rather a female candidate, is much more authentic and natural than others,” one person says.
“People are bored with these front-page politicians, repeating party messages, pulling the wool over their eyes. And she gives us a breath of fresh air, distance. That’s why we loved her,” says Wiktoria, standing next to her. She adds, however, that she attended the rally out of curiosity and does not intend to vote for Senyszyn.
She’s not a museum exhibit that you can’t touch.
Janek is a different story, he is very serious about voting for Senyszyn: “She does not speak for the polls, she only shows her knowledge. In her statements she provides historical and political context. And I would like to vote for someone who is not at the top of the polls.”
Worldcrunch 🗞 Extra!
Know more • Polish voters head to the polls on Sunday in the first round of voting to replace conservative President Andrzej Duda, who is nearing the end of his second and final term. If none of the 13 candidates wins at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held June 1.
Polls suggested a showdown between Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski — who is part of the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk — and historian Karol Nawrocki, an independent endorsed by the nationalist-populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. Their visions for Poland diverge sharply on the role of the EU and domestic social policy, including on the issues of abortion, LGBTQ+ rights and immigration.
The stakes are high, with the presidential powers including the ability to veto government bills. Indeed, since Tusk’s KO party came to power in late 2023, Duda has blocked key reforms aimed at restoring judicial independence and repairing relations with the EU. — Rebecca Bonthius, Worldcrunch editor (read more about the Worldcrunch method here).
Hearts and minds
Jakub, another Gen Z voter, has another perspective. “I’m thinking hard about this. In the first round, vote with your heart, in the second with your mind,” he says.
What does this heart of his speak to? “She combines quite radical views with a lack of aggression. And she doesn’t hold her tongue. I really like that she speaks so specifically about the Church. It’s her favorite topic. She also talked a lot about social justice today. She takes these elections really seriously,” Jakub adds.
Wiktoria, another voter, believes Senyszyn’s humor may be part of another strategy. “I wonder to what extent she’s trolling. Because Stanowski [a media personality running for president] says openly that he’s trolling, he’s putting on a show. And she actually talks about her views, she has a strong moral backbone.”
Mateusz has a theory that this is a form of entertainment for Senyszyn during her political retirement: “But it’s really cool. Not everyone can afford such entertainment financially.”
Senyszyn at an LGBTQ+ festival in Warsaw — Source: Official Facebook account
A human approach
Senyszyn counters such opinions at meetings that if she didn’t take these elections seriously, she wouldn’t go to them: “It costs too much time and money. I’m paying for this campaign myself.”
At Wiktoria’s request, she recorded a video with greetings for her. “She has a human approach. She’s not a museum exhibit that you can’t touch,” Wiktoria says.
One might get the impression that the left-wing politician has become attractive to voters who do not remember her past from the communist times, when she was a member of the Polish United Workers’ Party.
“She is not ashamed of it. She even said today that she was both in the Polish United Workers’ Party and Solidarity. In any case, it does not matter so much now. We had a lecturer at university who was in the party and avoided the subject. It is worse than openly admitting it,” says Mateusz.
Jakub adds: “Since she wasn’t in the law enforcement departments, it’s not a big shame. Many of us have relatives who were connected to the Polish United Workers’ Party.”
And how does the enthusiasm of young people on social media and their presence at meetings translate into a real desire to vote for Senyszyn? The latest poll by Opinion 24 for Newsweek shows Senyszyn in last place, with 2% of intended votes.
