Poles to vote in one of most important elections in decades
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Poland’s ruling conservative party heads into Sunday’s election to the 460-seat lower house and the 100-seat Senate as Poland’s most popular party, largely thanks to generous social spending and an assertive Poland-first stance toward the EU and other countries.
Concerns about democracy have made this one of the country’s most momentous election since the fall of communism 30 years ago. Critics fear Poland’s illiberal turn could become irreversible if the party wins another four-year term.
An opinion poll by Kantar published Friday showed Law and Justice at 40% and the centrist and pro-EU Civic Coalition, an alliance of several parties of which Civic Platform is the biggest, trailing at 26%.
Civic Platform governed Poland from 2007-15 with Donald Tusk, the EU leader, at the helm most of that time. It has struggled since the charismatic leader took up a key post in the EU in Brussels in 2014.
What seems to hold the most interest is whether Law and Justice can win a majority of seats in the lower house, the main legislating chamber. In 2015, it won 38 % of the votes but ended up with a small majority.
If Law and Justice fails to win a majority, it would most likely need to form a coalition with another party.
According to the Kantar poll, only three other parties would make it into parliament: a left-wing alliance at 12%, and the agrarian Polish People’s Party, and a far-right group called Confederation, which both polled 7%. The poll gave a margin of error of 3%.
