When he announced his independent and crowdfunded candidacy in January, journalists and politicians took it with a pinch of salt. But with the support of 11 per cent of voters in the final days of the campaign, drawn mainly from disgruntled mainstream parties, Mr Kukiz is the most popular anti-establishment candidate in Sunday’s elections.
“My conscience did not allow me to live comfortably as a musician, as I could not fight for dignity of Polish people with a microphone. I chose to beat the system instead of playing music,” the 51-year-old told the Financial Times, wearing thick black leather boots and a black sweatshirt bearing Poland’s national emblem.
Mr Kukiz, who is one of Poland’s most famous musicians and had a string of top 10 hits in the early 2000s, has one campaign pledge: to rip up the country’s political system.
“I want to bring Poland back to its citizens by introducing single-member constituency in general elections,” he said. “Today our country is in the hands of political clans, which have been beneficiaries of the proportional representation since 1989. People cannot vote for a citizen: they have to vote for political parties.”
Mr Kukiz will fight for third place on Sunday in a vote that is likely to be won by incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of the ruling Civic Platform party.
But the relative success of his candidacy, and support for other fringe candidates that support his anti-establishment message, has made constitutional reform a buzz topic of the election.
Mr Kukiz has also suggested he could team up with the radical rightwing politician Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who draws around 4 per cent support in recent polls, in the country’s general election in October.
“I would join even a farmers’ housewives association, if they had a single-member constituency in their programme,” he said. “My participation in this run is only one step towards a new constitution. Regardless the result, I have already won: I have sparked the faith that together we can change the existing rules.”
But the question remains whether Poland would elect a man who once sung in a band called “Kukiz and the Breasts” as their head of state.
“Americans trusted an actor, and he succeeded,” he said. “[Ronald] Reagan loved his fatherland and this is the only rule I want to follow.”