Chairman of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and the de facto leader of the government Jaroslaw Kaczynski officially joined the cabinet line-up on June 21, four months ahead of a critical election, in which PiS is seeking to win an unprecedented third straight term in office.

Kaczynski’s returning to work in the government – after a stint in 2020-2022 – is seen as a key move aimed at reining in factions and restoring the integrity of the campaign, which has suffered some setbacks recently.

PiS still leads the polls but it has become evident that the party, while still favoured to top the vote this autumn, will not win enough seats to control the parliament on their own.

Kaczynski’s going back to the government is, however, evidence that PiS is seeking a straightforward win, which the ruling party apparently wants to achieve by pitting Kaczynski against arch-rival Donald Tusk, the leader of the biggest opposition party, Civic Coalition (KO).

The new opening of the campaign with Kaczynski in the government – where he will be the sole deputy prime minister – is about to take place. 

The chairman, his formal superior PM Mateusz Morawiecki, and the rest of the party’s top brass are descending on the town of Bogatynia – squeezed between Czechia and Germany in southwestern Poland – this Saturday.

“We want [to be] where there is a real problem,” Joachim Brudzinski MEP, the new chief of the campaign, told the state-run newswire PAP, referring to the plight of the Turow mine in Bogatynia.

The mine is the focus of a legal battle, with environmental NGOs from Poland, Czechia and Germany looking to secure the mine’s closure because of the mine’s impact on neighbouring communities. 

Poland insists that the mine must keep working as it is too critical for the country’s energy security, supplying lignite to the nearby power plant, which, in turn, produces some 7% of Poland’s electricity. 

“Let [Tusk] organise his events where he and his people feel safe, where he won’t ever face up to people’s problems,” Brudzinski added in a swipe at KO’s convention in Wroclaw, taking place this weekend as well.

PiS has been on the defensive recently after a Tusk-led rally gathered an estimated 500,000 people in Warsaw demanding the end of PiS rule.

The ruling party also made some blunders. PiS passed a hugely controversial law in late May establishing a special committee to probe “Russian influence” on Poland, a potentially handy tool to discredit Tusk.

The passing of the law likely boosted turnout at the Warsaw rally, which PiS also attempted to portray as a hate event via an Auschwitz-themed video released on social media, another move that backfired after President Andrzej Duda, a PiS loyalist, criticised it.