Europe

Elections in Poland: The fall of Europe's biggest bastion of right-wing populism

October 16, 2023, 07:45 p.m JH

Poland's likely new prime minister: Donald Tusk

According to preliminary results, the ruling National Democrats are still the strongest party, but the government will probably be formed by the leader of the opposition, Donald Tusk. The biggest bastion of European right-wing populism fell on Sunday

The pre-election fight was uncompromising, long, filled with heavy mutual accusations and extremely divided Polish men and women who flocked to vote en masse on Sunday. The turnout was a record 72 percent.

When the preliminary results were announced, the leader of the opposition Civic Coalition, Donald Tusk, jumped up and exclaimed enthusiastically: "We succeeded! Democracy won! We ousted them from power!", reports the German "Spiegel". All kinds of media close to the head of the right-wing populist party Pravo i Pravda (PiS) Jaroslav Kaczynski tried to pin the former president of the European Council, to present him as a national traitor, a puppet of Brussels, an agent of Berlin, saying that he wants to abolish the minimum wage. They failed to disgust him enough with the voters.

Around the same time, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki posted on Facebook: "We won! Long live Poland!"

Neither one nor the other lied. According to the preliminary results, National-Conservationi PiS remained the single strongest party with 36,8 percent of the votes won. It's just that it won't be enough to form a government with the right-wing Confederation.

Tusk scored up to 31,6 percent and has a good chance of forming a government with the Left and the Third Time alliance. Together they would have 248 mandates in the Polish parliament, PiS 200, and the Confederation 12.

Poland Election Last Rallies

The face of national-populist Poland: Jaroslav Kaczynski / Photo: AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski

"We still can't say anything with certainty and we have to continue to hope," said last night the head of PiS and former de facto ruler of Poland, Jaroslav Kaczynski, and added: "Regardless of whether we are in power or in the opposition - we will not allow the betrayal of Poland". "The fact that this man, after three consecutive PiS election campaigns, is even considering the possibility of joining the opposition is a big change," states "Spiegel".

Under the rule of PiS and Kaczynski Poland, it moved away from the values of liberal democracy, from Brussels it was strongly criticized for subordinating the courts to politics, endangering the freedom of the media, policy towards migrants, inciting various forms of hatred, introducing the ban on abortion...

The last time PiS lost the elections was in 2007. Subsequent analysis showed that even conservative voters were seething with extreme political emergencies, hate-mongering and strife.

During this campaign, Tusk promised to bring hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the streets twice, and not only supporters of his civic alliance, writes "Spiegel". All of them reproached the government with a political style that despises democracy.

JH/FoNet/Spiegel

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Elections Poljska 2023. Jaroslav Kačinjski Donald Tusk pis right and right Warsaw

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