Conservatives set to stay in power in Poland
EXIT polls suggested Poland’s conservative government would retain its parliamentary majority, allowing it to forge ahead with a controversial programme of reforms that has put the country on a collision course with the EU.
Polls released just seconds after voting stopped put the ruling Law and Justice party on 43.6 per cent of the vote, which would give the party 239 seats in the Polish lower house, slightly more than the 231 required for a majority.
“We have a reason to be happy,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party’s leader, told a crowd of supporters. “Despite being opposed by a powerful force, we won and everything indicates we will continue to win. And if it does continue, there will be good changes.
Civic Coalition, the main opposition group, took 27.4 per cent of the vote, according to the polls. And the Confederation, a far-right alliance, could make it past the 5 per-cent threshold needed to take seats in parliament.
A victory for Law and Justice will give the government the momentum to push ahead with a programme that it says will make Poland a fairer country, and which critics have warned amounts to a power grab.
Before the election, Mr Kaczynski said he wanted to change the country’s constitution “to strengthen freedom” but this could embroil the government in further conflicts at home and abroad.
The EU has already threatened Poland with legal sanctions over a controversial overhaul of the judiciary that it said undermined the rule of law.
Opposition parties were hoping that the final vote count would deny Law and Justice an outright majority, forcing them to attempt to form a coalition – a difficult task for a party that has alienated almost all of its rivals.
Government supporters will argue that the outcome proves Law and Justice’s mix of left-wing policies with socially conservative and nationalistic stances on other issues has been a hit with voters.
The party has also presided over a strong economic growth. Poland’s GDP was expected to reach 4.3 per cent this year, according to the World Bank.