Election
results: confirmation before change
Poland went to the polls on 9
October. The victor was the PO (the liberal
conservative Civic Platform) with 39.18% of the vote and 206 seats in the new
parliament. The PSL (the moderate Polish
People’s Party) managed, despite fears to the contrary, to overcome the 5
percent hurdle by gaining 8.36% of the vote giving it 28 seats in the new
parliament. Together these two parties have 234 of the 460 seats and a narrow
but sufficient majority to form a government. The fact that there will be no
change in government after the election is viewed as a victory for the ruling PO and at the same time proof that the Polish political scene
has stabilised.
The PiS (the national conservative Law
and Justice Party) will, with its 30% of the vote and 158 parliamentary seats
be the second largest party in the Sejm (Polish parliament). The PiS has
demonstrated its political strength but is viewed, however, as the loser of the
election. The result was a long way from attaining party chief Kaczynski’s
election goal of taking over power and forming a government.
A new party, the Palikot Movement, taking
an anticlerical stand in a country in which the majority describe themselves as
catholic obtained 10.2% of the vote and 41 seats, making it the third largest
political force. This was the biggest surprise of the election and for many the
Palikot Movement was the real winner.
The post communist SLD (Democratic Left
Alliance) failed to make a new start. On the contrary with only 8.25% of the
votes it posted its worst result since 1989. This SLD defeat can no longer be
explained by waning support for the left. It is more a demonstration of a positive
political trend with the left demanding a more emancipated and modern society.
All in all, little has changed in the
political composition of parliament. The preponderance of the right (those with
conservative values) is as large as in previous years. Together the
liberal-conservative PO, the national
conservative PiS and the moderate PSL took almost 80% of the votes. With barely
20%, the left’s representation in parliament is very weak. In addition, post its election defeat, the
SLD is decimated and lost its way. Palikot’s protest party can only be
described as ‘limited left’, given the nature of its economic liberal demands.
The complete article can be downloaded by using the PDF button at the top of the page.
Agnieszka Rochon was born in Krakow in 1963 where she studied German at the Jagiellonian University (1982-89). For three terms, 1988-89, she studied at the Technical University in Berlin where she saw first hand the fall of the Berlin wall and the unification of Germany. From 1990 to 2001 she lived mostly in Berlin and worked as a freelance politics lecturer for a number of organisations and institutions. From 1996-2010 Agnieszka Rochon was employed by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, first in Gottingen and later Berlin dealing with central Europe and from 2001-10 as head of the Warsaw office. Since the middle of 2010 she has been living in Cracow and is adviser to the Greens/EFA in the European Parliament on the Polish Presidency.