The official results of Sunday's election are in, and Donald Tusk's opposition party Civic Platform (PO) is celebrating a landslide victory. The liberal pro-business and pro-EU party won 209 seats of the 460 seat lower house of parliament (Sejm), or 41.5% of the vote, with the former ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), taking only 166 seats or 32.1%, followed by the Left and Democrats (LiD) taking 53 seats or 13.2%, the Polish Peasants Party (PSL) taking 31 seats or 8.9%, and finally, the German Minority (MN) party taking one seat in the Sejm. PO will likely form a coalition government with PSL, meaning that together they will have more than the 230 seats required for a majority.
But what does putting the PO in Poland mean for the country? Well, for one, besides making a lot of (generally younger and urban) Poles happy, the results have received praise from most of Europe, particularly Western European countries which the Kaczynskis seemed to like infuriating, like Germany. The election results are a sign that Poland is tired of trite nationalistic and anti-European politicians who make the country look bad abroad. In the past two years, now former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski has managed to divide Poland, insult Germany, piss off an already easily pissed off Russia, and worried too much about the influence of former communists when Poland has many more timely problems to deal with. Mr. Tusk, 50, plans to do just that, as the main goals of the Civic Platform's... platform include lowering taxes and introducing incentives to stimulate business, and trying to replicate success stories such as Ireland in Poland.
Most importantly, Tusk wants to create an incentive for the nearly 2 million Poles working in the UK and Ireland to come back to Poland. Civic Platform's image is that of a forward-looking, modernising government. In regards to foreign policy, Tusk has promised to be more co-operative and not abrasive as the Kaczynskis had been, and to fix any damaged relations between Germany and Poland, as well as Russia and Poland, while keeping the United States as a key ally. However, Tusk has hinted that the 900 Polish troops in Iraq will be withdrawn. One can hope that the election results signal a return to a calmer, more progressive Poland, particularly now that radical parties such as the League of Polish Families and Self-Defence failed to win enough support to gain any seats in parliament. |