Poland's populist Law and Justice party increases its majority

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/14/poland-populist-law-and-justice-party-increases-majority

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Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice party has won Sunday’s parliamentary election, doing better than when it swept to power four years ago, according to nearly complete results.

According to official results from 91% of constituencies published by the electoral committee on Monday, Law and Justice took 44.6% of the vote, ahead of the country’s biggest opposition grouping, the liberal centre-right Civic Coalition, on 26.7%, and the Left alliance on 12.3%.

There was elation at the party’s headquarters on Sunday night as an exit poll projected on a big screen forecast the Law and Justice victory. Supporters chanted the name of Jarosław Kaczyński, the party’s founder and leader, who has in effect run Poland from his party office since taking power four years ago with 37.6% of the vote.

“We have reasons to be joyful. Despite the powerful front that was arraigned against us, we were able to win,” said Kaczyński. “I hope that tomorrow will bring confirmation of our success. We have four years of hard work in front of us, because Poland needs to change further. And it must change for the better.”

Since winning elections in 2015, the rightwing populists have embarked on a programme of massive social spending, winning widespread support, especially in smaller towns and the countryside.

Simultaneously, the party has been accused of attacking the judiciary, engaging in a culture war and, in recent months, using its stable of loyal media to launch a war on “LGBT ideology”, claiming the party is defending traditional Polishness.

Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister and a Kaczyński nominee, said: “Today the sun shone as it rarely does in October. And I hope tomorrow it will shine even brighter. These results give us a huge public mandate.”

Also buoyant were supporters of the Left. The result marks a return of leftwing parties to Polish parliamentary politics after a four-year absence, when a fragmented left failed to cross the parliamentary threshold.

“We are returning to the parliament!” Robert Biedroń, one of the Left’s three co-leaders, told a post-election rally. “We are going back to where the Polish left has always belonged.”

The agrarian PSL bloc and anti-system Kukiz’15 was at 8.6% while the far-right Confederation got 6.8%, based on the partial official results.

On Thursday, the European commission announced it was referring Poland to the European court of justice over its disciplinary regime for Polish judges, opening up a new front with Law and Justice, which is already embroiled in a dispute with the rest of the EU over the rule of law.