Poland’s election results are “a big disappointment” to those who seek tolerance in the country, a Polish-born American Jewish historian said Monday, a day after the conservative Law and Justice party won a crushing election victory. It is projected to be able to form a government alone, the first time a single group has done so since democracy was restored in Poland in 1989.
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Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz’s centrist Civic Platform party won only 138 seats, leaving it in opposition after eight years in power.
“Many party leaders have talked of wanting deeper change in Poland so, if we want to deliver that, changes to the constitution are vital”, the party’s spokesman on economic affairs, Zbigniew Kuzmiuk, said after the victory. 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 worldwide relations, pulls the strings behind the curtain.
In May, voters ousted President Bronislaw Komorowski of the PO, replacing him with Andrzej Duda of the PiS.
Poland’s largest gas distributor may negotiatie lower gas import prices from Russian Federation, as Russia’s gas import arm Gazprom plans larger sales in Europe with a softer offer for buyers, daily Parkiet reported.
Lucas Miszczyk, a 48-year-old sound technician, took the opposite view, saying he felt Law and Justice was the only party that has Polish interests at heart.
Throughout Law and Justice’s campaign trail, the party accused Civic Platform of being out-of-touch with ordinary Poles, while playing on scandals which have plagued the party.
Poland’s central bank chief on Tuesday warned that the incoming conservative government’s plans to impose new taxes on banks could weaken the European Union member’s “stable” financial sector. Warsaw’s stance is unlikely to change in its substance but the tone will undoubtedly be different from the one of the outgoing center-right Civic Platform.
PiS is close to the country’s powerful Roman Catholic Church and has promised increased benefits and tax breaks.
A few party members indicate that the new government could be in place by mid-November.
On the heels of that success, party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski named Szydlo the Euro-skeptic party’s candidate to lead the government in the fall parliamentary elections.
The PiS is led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, twin brother to former Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in 2010.
Law and Justice also wants to lower the retirement age and boost economic growth to 5 percent through fiscal and monetary stimulus.
Poland’s parliamentary election has seen the Eastern European nation edge further to the right, according to an exit poll released Monday. The new government will refuse to accept any new refugees from the Middle East. Mr Kaczynski has harshly criticised the outgoing government’s decision to accept refugees from Syria, warning that the “migrants carry diseases” and will be a threat to Poland’s Catholic Christian identity.
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In foreign policy, the eurosceptic Law and Justice opposes joining the eurozone and advocates North Atlantic Treaty Organisation intervention in dealing with Russian Federation.
