Opposition to Tusk with a majority
PiS is ahead in Poland – and yet is voted out
October 15, 2023, 9:22 p.m
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The Polish parliamentary election is a directional election marked by issues such as migration and attacks on Germany. More than a third of those eligible to vote support the course of the right-wing conservative government. The PiS still has to hand over government business to an old acquaintance.
According to initial forecasts, the opposition will win in the parliamentary elections in Poland. A three-party alliance led by former Prime Minister Donald Tusk is ahead of the right-wing camp around the ruling PiS, according to a post-election survey in the evening. Accordingly, a total of 248 seats in parliament are held by Tusk’s citizens’ coalition, the Third Way and the Left. The right-wing nationalist PiS and the right-wing extremist Confederation Party together have 212 seats. The absolute majority in parliament is 231 seats.
The PiS, with its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leads the United Right. According to forecasts, she will receive 36.8 percent of the vote. Tusk’s liberal-conservative Citizens’ Coalition (KO) received 31.6 percent. The Third Way – a centrist alliance – comes to 13 percent.
Around 30 million eligible voters were called upon to elect a new parliament. Opposition leader Tusk said the election result meant the “end of the rule of PiS”, which has led the government in Warsaw for eight years. “Poland won, democracy won, we drove them from power,” said Tusk.
PiS leader Kaczynski said they were waiting to see how events unfolded. The balance of power in parliament can still shift by nuances of a few percentage points for smaller parties. A lengthy government formation is expected.
The vote was seen as a choice of direction on the future course towards the EU, Ukraine and Germany. The PiS government with its Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has been waging a power struggle with Brussels for years, primarily over its judicial reform, which critics condemn as an attack on the rule of law and democracy.
The PiS election campaign was also strongly influenced by anti-German tones. The ruling party accused former EU Council President Tusk of acting in the interests of Germany, the EU and Russia.