“This is the end of the PiS government,” he declared Donald Tusk, A few minutes after the schools were officially closed, while the Polish media gave the first exit polls for the general elections in which both the chamber of deputies, the Sejm and the Senate were elected. ultra-conservative governing party Law and Justice (PiS) of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki While it still ranks first with 36%, Civil Platform (PO) According to preliminary data, the liberal candidate received 31 percent of the votes. But while PiS fell short of a majority, the opposition led by pro-European Tusk added the necessary votes with the support of centrists. Third Wayleft-wing with 13% Lewicawith 8.5%. As Tusk raised his arms declaring victory, Morawiecki confirmed his willingness to form a government and assume the post of president of the country. Andrzej DudaIt depends on PiS.
The key to Tusk’s rise, if confirmed in official counts, will be high turnout: 72%; This is approximately twelve points above the corresponding figure for the previous general election in 2019. The referendum was held at the request of PiS. Trying to legitimize PiS’s rejection of migration policy European Union (EU)It did not reach the minimum turnout of 50%, which should be binding among the other three issues, but remained at 40%. PIS concentrated its campaign on the rejection of asylum requests and the displacement of irregular immigrants and announced that it would block the EU plan, like Hungary. In addition to his victory in the general elections, he also sought public support on this issue.
PiS leader JAroslaw Kaczynski, He warned that we would have to wait for official results. The leader of the far right also spoke in a similar sense. ConfederationSlawomir Mentzen, who received 6.8% of the votes according to exit polls, fell short of their expectations and did not have the option of becoming the ally PiS would need to gain a majority. This party brings together the most radical far-right, as well as libertarians, who oppose the social assistance implemented by PiS.
Tusk’s return
Tusk voted amidst a huge media uproar at a polling station some distance from the center of Warsaw. Poland’s general elections symbolized the return to national politics of the liberal leader, who was the country’s prime minister between 2007 and 2014 but left that post to the prime minister’s office. Council of Europe. He was the only opposition candidate with the option of overthrowing the monolithic power of PiS, which in addition to the Warsaw government controls the country’s presidency through Andzej Duda.
The transition from the polls of Prime Minister Morawiecki and Kaczynski, PiS leader and strongman in Polish politics, was much more cautious. The turmoil created by Tusk had to do with expectations for a political turnaround in this partner of the party. EU and NATO Poland, however, is a country that has been characterized by constant conflicts with Brussels in the last eight years that PiS has been in government. A change in government in favor of Tusk would mark the way to a compromise with Brussels in Poland, which has blocked 35 billion euros in post-pandemic European funds. Warsaw has numerous conflicts with the EU, particularly over controversial judicial reform that has stripped Warsaw of its independence. JusticeIt resulted in a pile-up of fines and sanctions in European courts.
Urban vote versus rural vote
While PO has electoral strength in the capital and cities, PiS owes this to the countryside. In cities like BialystokLocated 177 kilometers from Warsaw and 45 kilometers from the Belarusian border, the scenario is very different from the capital. Until World War II, the majority of its population was Jewish; 65,000 of these residents were deported and murdered in the Nazi extermination camp at Treblinka. The opening of European funds is also eagerly awaited here. In addition to completing infrastructure works such as the renewal of railways in large parts of the country, they also depend on the money needed to implement the social, family and retirement benefits that PiS increases every year. Tusk promised there would be no disruptions during the campaign.
commitment to PiS or EU funds
“Vladimir Putin’s He is a terrorist. “The devil is the same as Stalin used to be,” 82-year-old retired teacher Beate Grela, a Bialystok and PiS voter, told EL PERIODICO DE CATALUNYA of Grupo Prensa Ibérica, a party for herself. , “It guarantees that the Russians will not return to cross our border.” He claims that he never came close to the Belarusian border. Even when Poland was a satellite country Moscow Even now, with the border fortified thanks to the fence built by the PiS government to protect Poland from “immigrants or enemy soldiers”, he describes the rudimentary French he learned in his youth. His son and grandson are “other people’s voters,” he says, referring to Tusk’s PO.
Bialystok is a panorama similar to that of other cities in the region: a mixture of old building blocks from the period when Poland was part of the Soviet orbit and new construction built in record time as if from nowhere, shopping malls, fast food restaurants and a renovated train train that is still nearing completion The huge area around the station is full of signs reminding us that all of this was built with EU funds. The mayor of Bialystock is PO’s Tadeusz Truskolaski and his son, Sejm deputy Krzysztof Truskolaski, whose face is ubiquitous on the city’s election posters. “Bialystock is looking forward to Europe,” says the 24-year-old grandson of a pensioner, father of three, mechanic and Tusk voter.