Eurosceptic party wins Polish election

POLAND’S Eurosceptic opposition were last night on course to triumph in the country’s general election after exit polls gave it a resounding victory over the incumbent centre-Right government.

Figures released after polls closed put Law and Justice on 39 per cent while Civic Platform, the party of Ewa Kopacz, the prime minister, scored 23 per cent. If the result stands it will give Law and Justice a precious, but slim, majority of two in Poland’s 460-seat lower house of parliament.

The other winner was Kukiz, an antiestablishment party led by Pawel Kukiz, a former punk rocker, which the polls put in third with 9 per cent.

Beata Szydlo, a 52-year-old ethnographer, will become the new prime minister and lead a government that will set aside the pro-EU policies of its predecessor. Law and Justice opposes closer EU ties, wants reform in Brussels and has little desire for Poland to join the euro.

The victory is expected to be a watershed moment in Polish politics.

Civic Platform has dominated the Polish political scene for the best part of a decade, defeating its opponents in two general elections and presiding over a period that some have christened a “golden age”.

Conceding defeat, Mrs Kopacz said Poland was a “more beautiful country” than it had been eight years ago, and thanked “those who put their trust in us twice”.

Law and Justice profited from dissatisfaction with Civic Platform’s rule. The government faced accusations of ignoring those feeling passed over by Poland’s economic success.