Julia Pitera:
Warsaw residents will elect a new mayor next month in the city's first ever direct vote. According to Julia Pitera, who is running for the office, independent candidates like herself will have an unprecedented chance to beat politicians from the "old political order." Pitera, who has been a Warsaw alderman for the past eight years and is the president of the Polish office of Transparency International, a global anticorruption coalition, said she is ready to cut the Gordian knot of corruption in the city. Pitera's strongest opponents are center-right candidates Lech Kaczyński, the cofounder of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, and Andrzej Olechowski, the cofounder of Civic Platform (PO), who according to recent polls are leading in the race. In an interview with the WBJ's Anna Kocińska, Pitera talked about how she would tackle Warsaw's problems if she were elected mayor. The following is a translated and edited version of their conversation.
Q: Why are you running for mayor? A: Listening to the first interviews with candidates running for the office made me really sad. It was obvious the campaign was going to become just another electoral ritual, performed by the same group of people who have nothing to offer Warsaw residents. I have always strongly supported a direct ballot to elect the heads of local governments, but I realized that politicians are again trying to damage the concept of democracy. That's when I thought that maybe I should run, because this time it might be worth it.
Q: How can you afford to pay for the campaign? A: Obviously, I won't be able to afford hundreds of billboards in the city. I am aware of that. I like being independent, so a long time before I decided to run for mayor I started saving for the next campaign for alderman in Warsaw. In addition, there are people who think that I would make a good mayor, and they promised some financial support. I have one advantage over the other candidates: I can directly reach voters because as an alderman I have been meeting them and helping them for the past eight years. Varsovians recognize me on the street and wish me luck.
Q: I've heard criticisms about your candidacy. Even people who respect you argue that being affiliated with the center-right you shouldn't run against two other center-right candidates because by fragmenting the votes conservatives will have little chance to win against the post-communist candidates. A: I will no longer subject myself to these weird political loyalties. Over the past 12 years, the political activities of my colleagues have brought few effects.
Q: Have your competitors tried to stop you? A: I had a call from a political circle in which someone argued that I would take votes away from Lech Kaczyński. I said that if his political grouping really wanted to put order in Warsaw, it wouldn't propose a candidate of Lech Kaczyński's caliber, who is a politician on a national, parliamentary scale. He is not a local politician. Instead it should look for a local leader, someone affiliated with the local government.
Q: You've said you want to put order in Warsaw, that you're determined to end corruption in the city's administration. How are you going to achieve this without strong political support? A: In democratic countries, human resources policy in public administration is independent of politics. Public administration officers have to be free of political influence and bias. How do I find such people? It can't be difficult in a city with 60 different educational institutions, which produce good lawyers and managers. While those young graduates can't find jobs, (Warsaw's) public administration has been employing people without qualifications. So what we need is an exam organized for current officers and potential candidates during which one would select the best managers. Those managers would later decide what to do with their staff. Under the law, there are six months to perform such changes. On the other hand, there are quite a few lower-rank officers with good qualifications and experience. It's only a matter of finding them.
Q: How would you deal with complicated ownership issues in Warsaw? A: Unresolved restitution issues in Warsaw are the reason why we still don't have prestigious Western investors here. I'm talking about investors who don't offer bribes and would never risk building on land with pending restitution issues. Poland's accession to the European Union will make dealing with this problem even more urgent, and there are more and more cases heard in the (international) Strasbourg Tribunal, which is far more costly for the state. So there is no other way than to deal urgently with ownership questions in Warsaw. The city should make an agreement with the Polish government to determine ways of compensating owners who won't be able to regain their property. But to do that we need to know how big the claims are and how many people have already regained their property. Warsaw authorities have been hiding such data so far.
Q: Many foreign developers have long complained of corruption in tenders organized by the city. What would you do about this? A: The city's property should be sold at open auctions. All the criteria would be crystal clear. The interests of the city would be secured in the contract, and the consequences of breaking or not fulfilling them, too. If someone doesn't like the conditions of the contract, he will not be forced to take part in it. It's as simple as that. But there is another issue that produces corruption - the lack of zoning plans in the city. That's why some investors simply buy such plans according to their needs. This has to be changed.
Q: How would you get rid of the traffic jams in Warsaw? A: One has to reorganize the financing of infrastructure investments. Instead of investing every penny in the underground, one should try to implement less costly plans such as an aboveground metro, which would use the existing city train network. I'm not saying we should stop the construction of the underground, but we all have to remember that nobody will give Warsaw hundreds of millions of złotys. According to this year's budget, Warsaw's debt should amount to zł. 845 million ($201 million), but according to forecasts it would reach zł. 950 million ($224 million).
Q: What will you do if you're not elected mayor? A: I can still become a Warsaw alderman. I can say that after eight years as an alderman, I've learned a lot and there is a lot that I owe to Warsaw residents. Still, I think I have quite a good chance to win. If I move to the second round of elections, I will win.
