– I feel that a third term with Law and Justice would be a disaster. It was a great relief that the democratic coalition will have the majority, Marcin told news. He and his comrade Piotr marched with the EU flag and the Polish one outside Donald Tusk’s vigil and the Borgar platform. – This is big for Poland, for the citizens and our children and it is a big day, Piotr told news. Spontaneous jubilation erupted in Warsaw’s streets when the election day announcement came at 9 p.m. The Law and Justice Party (PiS) became the largest, but with the help of supporting parties, Donald Tusk and the Civic Platform can form a majority government. If the result holds, this will be the end of 8 years of the controversial politics of PiS. – First we got rid of the communists, now I hoped we would get rid of the autocrats, and we did! Tell a jubilant Marcin. Donald Tusk managed to mobilize a million opposition figures in Warsaw during the election campaign, but received little traction from the state media. Photo: Radoslaw Dimitrow / news Outside the vigil, reporters from broadcaster TV Polen had also turned up, but few wanted to talk to them. Several politicians told news that they think TV Poland has mostly been a propaganda tool for the ruling party in the election campaign. Donald Tusk celebrates – I am the happiest man in the world. Democracy has won, Poland has won, Tusk said after the announcement. EU friend Donald Tusk is set to become Poland’s new prime minister. Photo: AFP If the election day polls are correct, Tusk’s Borgarplattformen bloc will have 31.6 percent of the vote and 163 seats in the National Assembly. At the same time, the support party Lewica gets 30 seats and the coalition “The Third Way” 55 seats. Together, this amounts to 248 mandates, which is more than half of the representatives in the National Assembly. In total, there are 460 representatives in the National Assembly. The governing party PiS gets 36.8 percent of the vote and 200 seats, and their ally, the far-right party “Forbundet for fridom og sjælvstende”, twelve seats. It is significantly less than what they had hoped for. The ruling party’s strongman, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had little to celebrate today when the election day announcement came. Photo: Reuters The leader of PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, acknowledges that the result of almost 37 percent makes PiS the country’s largest party, but that it may not be enough to secure government power. – We have to wait and see what the outcome will be, said Kaczynski. The official result will come on Tuesday. This is what a Polish polling station looks like. It has all the lists on one sheet and the voters can cumulate candidates they particularly like. That voting seat is for the Warsaw constituency. Photo: Radoslaw Dimitrow / news Record turnout There are reports of long queues at polling stations in Poland today. The two blocs have worked hard to mobilize the home sitar, and it seems to have succeeded. 72.9% turnout is a new record in Poland, a country that has traditionally struggled to attract people to the polls. The vast majority did their civic duty in Warsaw and in several places they ran out of ballot papers because so many people came from outside to vote. ONE SPLIT POLAND: The liberal Borgarplattform is doing best in the West, and conservative PiS is strongest in the East. At the same time, Poland is divided between city and country and young and old. Photo: ewybory.eu Road election for Poland It was a deeply divided country that went to the polls today and a lot is at stake. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, went to the polls with promises to take Poland further in a conservative, Catholic and centralized direction. The 74-year-old is currently the country’s deputy prime minister. Opponents blame him for leading Poland in an authoritarian direction and distancing himself from the liberal democratic values of the EU. PiS also has a restrictive attitude towards homosexuality and has in practice made abortion illegal in the country. PiS has received criticism during the election campaign for using the broadcaster TV Poland to collect votes. Fuel prices have also been lowered in the last three weeks. It may be demanding to reverse 8 years of conservative politics What is called the “democratic opposition” led by Donald Tusk, has promised to bring Poland back into the EU’s good company. Among other things, Tusk has promised to make major changes in TV Poland and other state-owned enterprises. But PiS still has the president and he can stick sticks in the wheel of a new government. Tusk probably lacks enough votes in the national assembly to be able to override the veto power of the president. For that he must have a 2/3 majority and he probably won’t get that even if he has enough mandate to form a majority government.
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