Mitt Romney was greeted by Polish supporters of Texas Rep. Ron Paul as his motorcade passed through Gdansk on Monday. Volunteers from the Romney campaign struggled in vain to use umbrellas to block a large Ron Paul banner from sight, Bonney Kapp of CBS News reports.
The Paul supporters’ sign read, “Polish Choice – Ron Paul Kongres Nowej Prawicy.” Kongres Nowej Prawicy stands for “Congress of the New Right” and is the name of a libertarian-conservative Polish political party founded last year.
A July 28 posting on the party’s website called for displaying a banner in support of Ron Paul during Romney’s visit. The post explains that the party believes Paul would be a better choice for the GOP.
Both Ron Paul and Obama supporters were present at the Romney press filing center in Gdansk according to Holly Bailey, a political reporter for Yahoo News.
Congress of the New Right was founded in March 2011 from the merger of the political parties Freedom and Lawfulness and Real Politics Union. Its founder and president, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, received 2.48 percent of the vote in the 2010 Polish presidential election.
Congress of the New Right favors trade liberalization, drug legalization, the right to keep and bear arms, withdrawal from the European Union, tax cuts and spending reductions — but it also opposes abortion and same-sex marriage. The party has no seats in either of Poland’s houses of parliament.
Romney is touring Poland’s sites and meeting with its leaders as part of a foreign policy campaign swing. Paul, Romney’s last-standing rival for the GOP nomination, has not officially dropped out of the presidential race.