Poland’s opposition says it has “stopped Polexit” as it claims an election “win” over the ruling party.
A last-minute exit poll suggested the ruling Law and Justice party would be on course to win the highest number of seats in Sunday night’s election. But suggests it would fall short of securing enough votes for an historic third term in power.
Known as PiS, it looked set to secure 36.8% of the vote. While an Ipsos poll suggested the centrist opposition would secure around 31.6% of the votes.
The BBC claims that would leave anti-Brexit Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition in a stronger place to form a coaltion government. It would end eight years of PiS rule under leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Kaczynski earlier admitted he did not know if the party’s “success will be able to be turned into another term in power”. While Borys Budka, the Civic Coaltion chair said the result suggests “Polish people proved we don’t want Polexit”.
After the poll was announced, he said: “We stopped Polexit today. Democracy in Poland stopped Polexit because the third term for PiS would mean Polexit.”
Looking at how the coming days could work in Polish politics should the exit poll be correct, Budka said it would not make Kaczynski “a person who can make a revolution now”.
Speaking to the Guardian, Budka said: “The next 40 hours, 60 hours will show how we build this coalition. But for us it’s obvious that coalition will be us, the Third Way and the Left.”
Borys Budka
Piotr Buras, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations’ Warsaw office, said “the liberals have won” after seeing the final exit polls. He added: “The opposition’s victory is the result of a growing fatigue with the PiS government in the society, beyond the groups usually supporting the liberals.
“The liberals have won the absolute majority but the process of forming a government may not be easy and straightforward.”
The final results of the election have not yet been declared.
