The pro-European centrist opposition won the legislative elections in Poland, according to the almost complete partial results published Monday evening, October 16, the day after these elections considered crucial for the future of the country and which recorded a record participation.
According to the partial results published after the counting of 99.54% of the ballots, the election should put an end to eight years of government of the populist nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski, with its Eurosceptic and anti-immigrant discourse.
The results show that PiS leads the poll with 35.58%, but without a majority, while Mr. Tusk’s Civic Coalition, the Third Way party and the Left together obtain more than 53.52%.
The Electoral Commission is due to announce the final results and official seat sharing on Tuesday.
“Poland won, democracy won, we kicked them out of power”declared Donald Tusk, president of the Civic Coalition (KO, opposition) and former president of the European Council, on Sunday evening. “It’s the end of this bad period, it’s the end of the reign of PiS”.
According to projections by the Ipsos polling institute, Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition would obtain 158 seats, the Third Way (Christian Democrats) 61 and the Left 30, i.e. 249 seats for the pro-European opposition out of a total of 460 .
The PiS would obtain 196 seats, and its potential far-right ally, the Confederation 15 seats, or 211 together.
A historic participation
The ballot saw a historic record of participation, with 74.25% of voters going to the polls. A figure which even far exceeds that of the legislative elections of 1989 (62.7%) which marked the end of communism in Poland.
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For many politicians and analysts, Sunday’s vote was of comparable importance to that of 34 years ago. The participation of young people and especially young women was decisive, reaching unexpected levels, underline experts.
“Not so long ago, half of women said they would not vote”reminds Agence France-Presse (AFP) Justyna Kajta, a sociologist from SWPS University in Warsaw.
Gold “it seems that more women than men went to the polls: nearly 74% of women and 72% of men participated” in the elections.
“Simultaneously, nearly 70% of young people aged 18 to 29 took action, compared to 46% four years earlier”she adds. “This jump is considerable in terms of interest in politics and participation”.
Natalia Szydlik, a 20-year-old student from Warsaw, explains to AFP that“there is certainly a lot of hope that things will change, mainly in terms of women’s rights, access to abortion”.
The liberalization of the right to abortion at the heart of the campaign
Conservative Poland, where power remains close to the Catholic Church, has one of the strictest abortion laws in Europe. Voluntary termination of pregnancy is only authorized in cases of rape, incest and danger to the life or health of the mother or child.
“I really believe that Poland will finally find its place closer to Europe, that we will be respected again, that we will stop living like in the Middle Ages especially when it comes to women’s rights, it is essential for me »insists Aleksandra Metlewicz, a 33-year-old decorator.
During the campaign, Donald Tusk promised to liberalize the right to abortion. This former senior European Union official also promised to restore good relations with Brussels and to release European funds frozen by the EU due to disputes that arose during the two governments led by PiS. He said he was confident in the possibility of forming a coalition.
“We will definitely reach an agreement”, he assured after the announcement of the first results, and potential members of the coalition made similar statements. However, analysts warn that any government coalition emerging from the current opposition could frequently come into conflict with President Andrzej Duda, a close friend of PiS.
In initial statements after the vote, Mr. Duda welcomed the high turnout but did not say to whom and when he would entrust the formation of the new government.
Preliminary results do not give potential opposition allies the three-fifths majority required to override the presidential veto.