The conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) has won Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Poland with 37.7 percent of the vote, giving the party enough seats to form a government without a coalition, according to exit polls for TVP1, TVN24 and Polsat News.
The country’s ruling party, Civic Party (PO) collected 23.6 percent of votes, or 137 seats in the Polish parliament, while the party led by the Polish rockstar, Paweł Kukiz, won 8.7 percent of votes (42 seats). Coming in fourth, Nowoczesna, the party led by Ryszard Petry, will join the government will 7.7 percent of votes, followed by PSL (5.2 percent).
The result marks a return to power for PiS after ten years in opposition, eight of which were years of of economic growth and political stability under the centrist and pro-market Civic Platform.
“We didn’t waste the last eight years,” Kopacz told Civic Platform supporters, in conceding defeat. “Poland is a country that has made economic progress, unemployment is down to single-digits. This is the Poland we leave to the election winners.” But there’s a sense that many Poles have begun to see economic prosperity as a cause of growing social inequality. The party has also came under heavy fire after the series of controversial recordings disclosing corruption involving PO’s key representatives were published.
