Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a conservative and a stalwart anti-communist, was poised to become Poland’s Prime Minister on Sunday night, leading a right-wing coalition.
Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party came from behind in a general election to take first place with about 28% of the vote, according to Polish television exit polls.
The liberal right-wing Civic Platform, a possible coalition partner for Kaczynski, came second according to the projections, with about 25%. If, as promised, both parties forge a coalition government, they will muster a comfortable majority with about 300 seats in the 460-seat Polish sejm, or Parliament, although short of the two-thirds majority they wanted to rewrite the Constitution. The election represented a drubbing for the scandal-prone governing party of former communists, the Democratic Left Alliance, which took about 11%, compared with 41% in 2001.
The ballot also confirmed the trend in Poland of incumbent governments being kicked out in each of the five elections since democracy arrived in 1989. That mood of dissatisfaction with those in power was further underlined by the low turnout of about 40%. ”We have won as a party and what’s more important we have won as a programme, as a certain idea for Poland,” Kaczynski said as the initial results came in. Donal Tusk, the leader of the main rival and potential partner Civic Platform, conceded defeat.
While the Law and Justice party — Christian Democrats who are nationalist, suspicious of Germany, the Russian Federation and the EU and welfarist in their social and economic views — looked able to call the shots in settling the direction of the government, Kaczynski’s chances hinged on family dynamics. His twin brother, Lech, the mayor of Warsaw, is running for the presidency in a fortnight. If Lech wins, Jaroslaw may forfeit the prime ministership. They are identical 56-year-old twins determined to run Poland. But they may deem it too troubling to occupy both top posts simultaneously.
Jaroslaw had said he would forgo being prime minister if his sibling became president, but he revised that on Sunday night. ”Whoever wins the election has the prime minister post, and then this applies to me as the head of the winning party,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â