Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) has won the parliamentary election. Party leader Jarosław Kaczyński declared victory after securing close to 44 percent of the vote on Monday afternoon.
The Catholic-conservative PiS is set to secure an absolute majority of 239 in the 460-seat parliament, initial projections show.
“We have reasons to be joyful. Despite the powerful front that was arraigned against us, we were able to win,” Kaczyński said, referring to the hostile campaign waged against the party by the European Union and media establishment.
Today’s result is an endorsement of the anti-EU and pro-business approach taken by the Polish government. Despite the recession and economic slowdown hitting major European economies, Poland has registered an impressive economic growth under the current government. Since the party took power four years ago, wages have gone up, and unemployment has fallen to a record low.
The widespread support for the ruling party also rests on its firm opposition to the open border immigration policy pushed by Brussels. Poland has been the most prominent opponent of the EU’s efforts to settle illegal immigrants across all of the 27 member states.
Public broadcaster Radio Poland reported today’s election outcome:
With 99.49 percent of the ballots counted, the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party had 43.76 percent of the vote, while the largest opposition bloc, the Civic Coalition, led by the Civic Platform (PO) party, had 27.24 percent, the National Electoral Commission said on Monday afternoon.A block of three leftist parties led by the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) finished third in Sunday’s election with 12.52 percent, a result that would open the way for a left-wing grouping to return to parliament after a hiatus of four years, according to the data released by the National Electoral Commission. (…)Law and Justice leader Jarosław Kaczyński claimed victory after an exit poll was released when the polls closed on Sunday evening. He told cheering supporters: “We’ve won; we’ve managed to win despite a powerful front against us.”He added: “We have four years of hard work ahead of us because Poland must continue changing, and it must be changing for the better.”Poland’s conservative Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the exit polls results showed Law and Justice had been given an “enormous social mandate.”
In the run-up to the Polish election, EU officials waged a fierce campaign against the nation’s ruling party. For instance, the EU dragged the Polish government before the top EU court for undertaking justice reforms. Since taking power four years ago, the Law and Justice party have passed a series of laws aimed at freeing the country’s courts from the EU stranglehold.
The EU has also sued Poland, Hungary, and other eastern European countries for refusing to take in migrants as part of its massive European relocation scheme.
It was “populists,” like the ones running Poland, who were posing a threat to the “European way of life,” and not the illegal immigrants, EU Commission chief, Ursula von der Leyen, warned last month. These European right-wing parties “want to replace democracy, diversity and the rule of law with ‘traditional values’ and ‘illiberal’ democracy,” Politico reported paraphrasing von der Leyen, a long-time associate of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Sunday’s PiS victory could also prove a headache for Brussels and several European capitals,” UK newspaper Guardian warned. The result comes as a big disappointment to the EU officials who were rooting for the pro-EU parties in the Polish election, the left-wing newspaper disclosed. “European diplomats admitting in private that many in Brussels had hoped the problem would be taken out of their hands by Polish voters,” the UK daily added.
Germany’s state media was equally disappointed at the result. With conservatives surging in polls, Poland was now moving “further toward an authoritarian dictatorship,” German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle complained. “The strong voter mandate for PiS means that Poland will continue to be a difficult partner for both the EU and Germany,” the state broadcaster predicted.
The German broadcaster also attacked what it saw as a tacit alliance between Poland’s ruling party and the country’s Catholic church, calling it disparagingly an “alliance of throne and altar.” Despite the recent Liberal stance taken by the Vatican, the Church in Poland remains mostly committed to traditional Catholic values. Today’s “victory would be unthinkable without the support of the powerful Catholic Church,” Deutsche Welle commented.
With Germany and France dominating the EU, Poland has emerged as the fiercest opponent of its transnational agenda. In the face of the EU’s relentless push for mass immigration and a European superstate, Poland has provided crucial leadership to the eastern European countries. Today’s outcome strengthens the anti-EU resistance all across Europe.
[Cover image via YouTube]
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