The pro-European centrist opposition won a parliamentary majority in Sunday’s legislative elections in Poland, beating the ruling nationalist populists (PiS) and the far right combined, according to exit polls.
The three centrist opposition parties, Donald Tusk’s Citizens’ Coalition (KO), the Third Way Christian Democrats and the Left, together won 248 seats in the 460-member parliament, compared to 212 seats for PiS. and the Confederation (far right) united.
Asked by AFP, after his vote in Warsaw, about the importance of this election, Mr. Tusk replied: “In fact, once again we are voting for our fundamental rights, our fundamental values.”
“These are the most important elections since the end of the war because they will decide the future of our country in Europe and in the world,” Helena Miklaszewska, a 56-year-old trader, told AFP. Halinow, east of Warsaw.
For Jozef Przygodzki, a 70-year-old retiree, this vote is “important because because of them [le PiS] we are arguing with all of Europe.”
In Pruszkow, a town in the western suburbs of Warsaw, Ewa Slonecka, retired, also voted “for change”.
“We must send them to pasture!” They are thieves, they stole the country from us, they violated the law, the Constitution, sanctioned nepotism,” she exclaims.
On the other hand, for nurse Dorota Zbig, 57, “the changes of recent years have been very good” for her and her family.
As of noon local time, turnout reached 22.59% of voters, compared to 18% four years earlier at the same time, the National Electoral Commission announced.
A PiS victory could have exacerbated tensions with Brussels and Kiev and disappointed those concerned about the future of the rule of law, press freedom, women’s rights and migrants’ rights.
“We have ceded some powers to the EU, but that is enough, nothing more. We are in the EU, we want to stay there, but in an EU of sovereign countries,” repeated Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of PiS, during the party’s last rally on Friday.
Mr. Tusk told him that PiS had “secret plans” to leave the EU and that it was “leading the country in the wrong direction”.
“For the changes”
PiS had pledged to continue its controversial reforms to the justice system which it says are aimed at rooting out corruption but which the EU sees as an attack on democracy.
A coalition partner for PiS could have been the Confederation, a far-right party that wants to end large-scale aid to Ukraine, and campaigned on an anti-immigration and anti-European platform.
However, the Confederation has ruled out such an alliance and some analysts say it is unlikely due to simmering tensions between the two parties.
The centrists, however, managed to collect enough votes to form a government with two small possible allies, the Left and the Third Way.
“I want women to be able to decide about their lives, that men no longer decide whether we should give birth to a child resulting from rape, to a child suffering from an incurable disease,” a worker from the company told AFP. 50 years in Pruszkow, who voted for the Left and who prefers to remain anonymous.
But a 75-year-old retiree, voting just after her, believes that “it’s going as it is now, we need calm”.
“I was poor, I received 924 zlotys a month. Today, I have 2000,” said this man, without revealing his name.
PiS supporters say a victory on Sunday would have allowed the party to realize its vision of a powerful, sovereign Poland, based on traditional Catholic values.
The campaign was marked by violent personal attacks against Mr Tusk from those in power who accused him of working in the interests of Berlin, Moscow and Brussels.
Scrambled
kyiv and its Western allies are closely observing these elections, after the recent election in Slovakia of a government hostile to aid to Ukraine.
Poland is one of kyiv’s main supporters and has welcomed a million Ukrainian refugees onto its soil, but weariness is growing among Poles.
The government fell out with Ukraine after declaring a ban on imports of its grain, arguing the need to protect Polish farmers.
Poles elect 460 deputies to the lower house and 100 senators to the upper house at the same time.
PiS held a referendum the same day, with questions on migrants and the economy, which the opposition called for a boycott.
Polling stations in the EU and NATO member country opened at 5:00 a.m. and closed at 7:00 p.m.
Exit polls are expected immediately afterwards and final results on Monday.