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Poland Opposition Claims Victory In Elections

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

WARSAW/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Poland’s political opposition declared victory on Sunday in what they viewed as the nation’s most crucial election since 1989, when a new democracy was born after decades of communist rule.

Poland’s liberal Civic Coalition led by former European Union chief Donald Tusk and two smaller opposition parties have a majority over the ruling populists and the far-right, an exit poll from Sunday’s election showed.

Tusk’s Civic Coalition, the Third Way, and Left parties were due to win 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, while the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) and Confederation would have 212 seats.

“We did it! Really! … Poland has won, democracy has won. We have removed them from power!” opposition leader Tusk — a former prime minister and head of the EU’s European Council — told his supporters late Sunday.

An opposition victory means a dramatic shift for Poland, where the Law and Justice party has held power for the past eight years, making it one of the most successful rightwing populist parties in Europe.

However, it was also seen as a model of democratic rollback. The Polish government exerted control over the courts, the media, and other previously independent institutions.

Additionally, it imposed one of Europe’s most restrictive measures on abortion in this heavily Catholic nation. While welcomed by some church leaders, the measures led to massive protests.

MORE PRESSURE

The government also came under pressure over its perceived limiting of LBGTQ+ rights, further raising tensions with leaders of the European Union, of which Poland is a member.

Critics said the government copied the playbook of longtime Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has come under EU pressure over his perceived authoritarian style.

An opposition win in Poland would further isolate Orbán in the EU, Worthy News observed.

Turnout Sunday in Poland’s elections appeared to be even higher than the 63 percent of voters who turned out in 1989, which led to the ouster of the communists.

While the opposition parties seemed to have a bigger chance at forming a workable coalition government, Law and Justice was still expected to be tasked to try first: it received most votes but had no parliamentary majority.

It falls to President Andrzej Duda, an ally of Law and Justice, to tap a party to try to form a government.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Polsat News that Duda “will entrust the mission of forming the government to the winning party, and in this first step, we will certainly try to build a parliamentary majority.”

OPPOSITION HOPEFUL

Yet the opposition did not believe he could find enough backing for a majority-based government.

They were already celebrating as they expected to be able to form the next cabinet.

“I have been a politician for many years. I’m an athlete. Never in my life have I been so happy about taking seemingly second place. Poland won. Democracy has won. We have removed them from power,” Tusk told his cheering supporters.

“This result might still be better, but already today, we can say this is the end of the bad time; this is the end of Law and Justice rule,” Tusk added.

Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski acknowledged the ambiguous result. However, he tried to sound optimistic, saying that at nearly 37 percent of the vote, his party won the most votes for three parliamentary elections in a row.

“We must have hope, and we must also know that regardless of whether we are in power or in the opposition. We will implement this (political) project in various ways, and we will not allow Poland to be betrayed,” Kaczynski said.

Yet he faced an uphill battle to convince enough legislators to back a Law and Justice-led government.

TIGHT SECURITY

Sunday’s elections were held amid stepped-up security after Palestinian militant group Hamas called for protests as Israel attacked the group in Gaza following massacres in Israel that killed more than 1,400 people.

At least three polling stations reportedly received bomb threats, with some 200 voters whisked away from potential dangers.

Earlier on Saturday, police detained a man who climbed the top of a monument in the capital, Warsaw, and threatened to blow himself up, officials said.

Several police and special counterterrorism officers sealed off a large square where the man had shouted something through a megaphone for hours.

The incident ended when he climbed down from the monument without anyone being harmed, witnesses said.

The incident happened at Pilsudski Square, the memorial site to late President Lech Kaczynski and the dozens of other victims of a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia.

There were no reports of injuries in the incidents, but it heightened tensions in a nation already facing its most tense political landscape in decades.