Nonetheless, in spite of the turbulence in the single currency area, it remained committed to fulfilling the criteria for Eurozone accession as quickly as was realistically possible, as part of its long-term strategic goal for Poland to be at the centre of the EU’s decision-making core.
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Law and Justice won 235 of the 460 seats, meaning it can govern alone.
“Anti-establishment, anti-politician sentiment played a central role in the campaign and PiS was successfully able to tap into this, but it could also fall afoul of the same forces in the future”, he said.
Adam Michnik, the former anti-communist dissident who is today editor of Poland’s best-known newspaper, the Gazeta Wyborcza, said the vote would have “disastrous consequences” because of the “clearly xenophobic attitude of this party”.
The governing Civic Platform (PO) liberals came second with 24.09 percent.
But foreign policy isn’t at the top of minds of most voters. This might seem surprising considering the buoyancy of the Polish economy and the positive record of the country’s transformation so far.
Leftist economics, rightist political agenda?
This time, the party took a new tack.
More recently, Law and Justice’s different approach towards European integration could be seen in its attitudes towards the migration crisis.
What change does Poland want? They are the fresh moderate faces of Law and Justice. This is where the real questions about the effects of Sunday’s election begin. Numerous refugees are Muslims.
One variable remains whether the right-wing nationalist Korwin movement will make it over the 5 percent election threshold, which could upset a PiS majority. Is the party really turning away from its illiberal roots?
Law & Justice embraces a few classic rightwing leanings like opposition to abortion and to in-vitro fertilization.
PiS signalled plans to reap new revenues from next year with a tax on banks’ assets and there were also signs it was confident of sufficient informal support in parliament from other parties to plan changes to Poland’s constitution. The real victor is PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s political street-fighter and last man standing from the Solidarity generation.
PiS has said Poland will not join the euro in the next four years and has promised to make largely foreign-owned banks and supermarket chains pay new taxes to fund more social spending, imitating steps taken by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
He insists Warsaw should financially support European Union efforts to tackle the crisis, but not take in refugees – a view surveys suggest is shared by almost 60 percent of Poles.
The party’s officials said the monetary stimulus would be similar to the European Central Bank’s cheap loans programme LTRO or the Bank of England’s funding for lending programme. If Poland runs high budget deficits, the credibility of the country on financial markets will suffer, increasing the costs of state financing. Under such circumstances the European Commission may even step in to curb expenses and threaten to cut structural funds.
That story, however, did not resonate throughout Poland, which remains very rural, very religious and, in its more remote corners, still crippled by the transition from the Communist regime that ended a quarter-century ago and untouched by the country’s wider economic success.
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Relations between Brussels and Warsaw could also be undermined by tense personal relations.
