Poland’s Law and Justice party took more votes than any other group, official results from the country’s parliamentary election have confirmed.
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It is the first time a single party has won enough votes to govern alone since democracy was restored in 1989.
She combined blistering right-wing Catholic conservatism – including angry opposition to abortion and homosexuality – with attacks on the European Union (though she did not suggest withdrawing) and an unlikely populist economic program built on pledges to lower the retirement age back to 65 for men and 60 for women (it had been slated to rise by two years), increase social-security payments and tax banks and supermarkets. A Law and Justice-led government will also try and achieve a stronger Polish presence in worldwide negotiations on Ukraine’s future and policy towards Russian Federation, and be more open to providing military aid to Kyiv within the framework of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation alliance. It has also believes a strong North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is essential in order to deal with the perceived threat from Moscow.
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a Law and Justice leader, said during the campaign that refugees from the Middle East were bringing diseases like cholera and dysentery to Europe. That choice prompted concern Szydlo would be the public face as Kaczynski, a controversial figure whose term as prime minister was marked by domestic political turmoil and tense global relations, pulls the strings behind the curtain.
PiS has vowed to take on a more assertive stance in foreign policy, which is all but certain to cause fresh rifts between Warsaw and Berlin as well as Brussels after eight years of PO rule, which sought to keep Poland in the European mainstream.
Perreira: “Could you explain the victory for the party?”
PiS will also have a chance to nominate the majority of members of Poland’s monetary policy council, giving the party de facto control over interest rate policy.
Poland has continued to grow through the global financial crisis but, in general, workers can earn more in neighboring Germany than they can at home.
The governing Civic Platform (PO) also never recovered from a 2014 eavesdropping scandal that discredited high-profile government ministers. The result can also be explained by the ballots from a new generation of voters.
Polish voters retaliated by voting for the opposite party. They weren’t young people or graduates from the major cities. The outgoing Civic Platform-led government tried to strike a balance between competing domestic and global pressures.
“The success of Law and Justice is past doubt”. Such a move is bound to sour relations with Russian Federation, already tense as a result of the crisis in Ukraine. Warsaw may demonstrate even more support for a democratic and sovereign Ukraine.
PiS advocates a robust Western approach toward Russian Federation, especially following Moscow’s 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula in Poland’s eastern neighbor Ukraine.
He said the government would be committed to maintaining an overall deficit below three percent of national output in line with European Union guidelines. Russian Federation is a hard partner.
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He is unlikely to be very friendly to Germany either, a country which both he and his late brother deeply mistrusted, although the personal criticism which the brothers used to heap on German Chancellor Angela Merkel is likely to be toned down.
