Warsaw, Poland
Reuters
Poland’s ruling nationalists were ahead in parliamentary elections on Sunday but without a majority, an exit poll showed, raising the possibility that the liberal opposition could seek to form a governing coalition.
The Ipsos exit poll gave the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party 36.8 per cent of the vote, which would translate into 200 lawmakers in the 460-seat parliament.
Donald Tusk, leader of the largest opposition grouping Civic Coalition (KO), casts his ballot during Poland’s parliamentary election at a polling station in Warsaw, Poland, on 15th October, 2023. PICTURE: Reuters/Aleksandra Szmigiel
The largest opposition grouping, the liberal Civic Coalition (KO), was projected to win 31.6 per cent of the vote, which would give it 163 seats. Together with the centre-right Third Way coalition and the New Left, who could enter a coalition with KO, it would command 248 seats.
Official results will start coming in later on Sunday.
KO leader Donald Tusk, a former European Council president, has vowed to mend Warsaw’s relations with Brussels, which have been strained by numerous clashes over issues such as judicial independence, LGBT rights and migration.
“Democracy has won…This is the end of the PiS government,” a jubilant Tusk told party members on Sunday evening.
Critics say that since coming to power in 2015, PiS has increased political influence over the courts and turned state media into propaganda outlets. Some 110 billion euros of EU funds earmarked for Poland have been frozen due to rule-of-law concerns.
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski told officials gathered at the party’s headquarters in central Warsaw that it was not clear whether Sunday’s showing would translate into a new term in office. “We have to have hope,” Kaczynski said.
With war raging in neighbouring Ukraine and a migrant crisis brewing, the EU and Washington are watching the vote closely, although both PiS and its mainstream opposition support NATO-member Poland’s key role in providing military and logistical support to Kyiv.
PiS had cast the election as a choice between security from unfettered migration, which it says its opponents support, and a creeping westernisation it sees as contrary to Poland’s Catholic character.
PiS, which denies any wrongdoing, says its reforms aim to make the country and its economy more fair while removing the last vestiges of communism. It has built its support on generous social handouts, which it says rival parties will stop.
