Poland’s parliamentary election campaign has so far offered little beyond PR stunts, which haven’t visibly impacted voters’ preferences five weeks ahead of election day. The ruling party continues to have a commanding lead over rival conservatives.
The Civic Platform party, which has governed Poland since 2007 in a stable coalition with the Peasants’ Party, would get 32% of the vote, while the conservative Law and Justice party would get 24%, according to a poll by Homo Homini for daily Super Express. The Democratic Left Alliance would get 12%, and the ruling party’s agrarian coalition partner would get 7%.
In a separate poll by GfK Polonia for daily Rzeczpospolita, the ruling party, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, can count on 47% of the votes, while the conservatives, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, may get 29%. The two smaller parties would get 13% and 4%, respectively. In this scenario, the Civic Platform party could get the absolute majority in Poland’s lower house of parliament. Both polls were published on Friday.
It’s hard to say when the election campaign began. You could say the previous election campaign never ended, especially not when it turned out that Mr. Tusk’s party was going to take away power from Mr. Kaczynski in 2007. The two are bitter rivals and last year’s plane crash, which killed President Lech Kaczynski, Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s twin, only revealed more rifts between the leaders. It’s a reflex now in both to deny the other’s achievements and downplay future plans. Many voters appear to be sharing their leaders’ reflexes.
Full Article: Polish Election Campaign Fails to Change Trends – Emerging Europe Real Time – WSJ.