Implications of Polish Elections on Domestic and European Affairs

Study by: David Grodzki.

The ruling government party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the liberal-conservative Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO), secured a second term in office after seeing the national-conservative Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS) of opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński, brother of the late president Lech Kaczyński, come in second during the parliamentary elections on 9 October 2011. The biggest surprise of the election, despite the unprecedented back-to-back parliamentary victory of the PO, is the result of Palikot’s Movement (Ruch Palikota, RP), founded by former PO renegade Janusz Palikot, which scored more than 10% of the vote. Another surprise, although a negative one, is the fall from grace of the Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej, SLD) party, which might signify the party’s end.

What consequences will the re-election of the PO, and the probable continuation of the coalition between the PO and the Peasants’ Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL), mean for Poland’s European partners? Will the Tusk government undertake more radical, and badly needed, domestic reforms, or will it continue to choose the path of least resistance? How will the PiS react to the electoral defeat – the sixth in a row – and what role did Kaczyński’s remarks in the last week of the campaign play? Two more issues need to be addressed: the future of the SLD and party leader Grzegorz Napieralski, and the question of whether the success of Palikot’s Movement can be simply explained by the discontent of young voters, or whether it is going to establish the party as the most anticlerical force in Polish politics.

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