Poland’s pro-EU opposition with a 10-point lead

The European Coalition, Poland’s pro-EU opposition has a 10-point lead over the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) ahead of European Parliament elections.

According to a survey issued on Friday, this marks a sharp turnaround that some analysts linked to a film about sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church.

The documentary “Just don’t tell anyone”, which shows victims of child abuse confronting priests who had sexually abused them, has shocked Poles. The powerful Catholic Church has close ties with the governing party.

The European Coalition, which comprises pro-Europeans from across the political spectrum, would win 43.6% and PiS 32.9% in the May 26 election, according to the poll, conducted on May 14-16 by the Institute for Research into Public Affairs (IBSP) for Newsweek and Radio Zet. Though some observers expressed scepticism at the poll results.

Most previous opinion polls have put PiS, which takes a more conservative stance on social and moral issues in the lead for both the EU election and for a national election due later in 2019.

The far-right Confederation party support grew by five percentage points in the space of a week to hit 6.9 percent, the survey showed.

Via Reuters