Sejm (lower house) votes as of 100% votes counted):
- Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Right) - 35,38%
- Koalicja Obywatelska (Centre) - 30,70%
- Trzecia Droga (Centre-Right) - 14,40%
- Nowa Lewica (Centre-Left) - 8,61%
- Konfederacja (Far Right) - 7,16%
Up to date results: https://wybory.gov.pl/sejmsenat2023/pl/sejm/wynik/pl
Sejm (lower house) seats as of 100% votes counted:
- Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Right) - 194
- Koalicja Obywatelska (Centre) - 157
- Trzecia Droga (Centre-Right) - 65
- Nowa Lewica (Centre-Left) - 26
- Konfederacja (Far Right) - 18
Democratic opposition gets 248/460 seats, safe majority but not enough to counter presidential veto.
D’Hondt calculator via: https://danieljanus.pl/wybory2023/
Senat (upper house) as of 100% votes counted:
- Senate pact*: 66
- PiS: 34
* First past the post system is used in the upper house elections. Senate pact is an informal coalition of all democratic opposition parties where they agree on a single candidate per voting district.
Good news for Poland and the EU, finally
Good news for Poland and the EU, finally
So it seems. Some big steps in a better direction:
“This is the end of the bad times, this is the end of the PiS government,” Donald Tusk declared on Sunday night.
The opposition had already warned Poles it was their “last chance” to save democracy. The National Election Commission put the turnout at 74% , the highest since the fall of communism in 1989."
The site wybory.gov.pl shows maps, if you click on a party name, which illustrate a clear NW / SE divide, as well as the urban / rural divide that’s common everywhere. Any explanations, why NW is so different from SE, and how to reduce such polarisation?
IIRC, the map of voting tendencies in Poland echoes the map of the partitions of Poland, with the parts that had been under Russian rule before WW1 leaning more towards authoritarian autocracy than the parts that had been under Prussian and Austrian rule. Presumably some form of cultural transmission of attitudes to power would be the root cause.
Old divisions maybe relevant, but it’s not so simple. For example, greatest PiS % in SE corner is on the Austrian side of that division. Also, [grand]parents of many people in western poland moved there from the easternmost areas which became Ukraine and Belarus after the war. I’m told catholicism is relevant, and Austrian empire was catholic, but that included Czechia which became the least religious country. I think a plot of PiS vote vs altitude would show a good correlation…
A correlation between altitude and political illiberality has been noted elsewhere, and it has been speculated that it’s due to more diverse areas tending to be more liberal, and ports and market cities tending to be more diverse, so that is probably part of it.
oops - thanks, fixed
Here’s a map of votes for PiS from poles abroad - low in most of europe and especially in far-east, but what happened across the atlantic ?
Polish diaspora in the US is very weird, there’s what you could almost call a fetishization of Polish stereotypes. Think of an anime fan but with pope, pierogi and kiełbasa. PiS emphasizes tradition in their image so they score points with these people. Results from the US are actually rather bad compared to historical ones.
I’m guessing that the US’ Polish diaspora would have a greater proportion of Poles who fled Communism and their descendants, and thus lean rightward (see also: Cubans in Miami), whereas the European Polish diaspora would be mostly economic migrants from after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
According to a final exit poll published on Monday, a partnership with the far-right Confederation would leave the socially conservative PiS 20 seats below the required number.
International observers said on Monday that parties had been able to campaign freely before Sunday’s vote, but PiS had enjoyed a “clear advantage” through biased state media coverage and the misuse of public funds.
State TV’s election night coverage broadcast Mr Kaczynski’s address to supporters in full, but gave little room to his main rival.
Law and Justice came to power in 2015, and it has emphasised Catholic family values, increasing the minimum wage and raising child support and pensioner payments.
PiS leaders did show signs of wavering in recent weeks, but that was seen as an attempt to court far-right voters and whoever leads the next government is expected to maintain Poland’s support for its neighbour.
Poland may not get a new government before December, after PiS ally President Andrzej Duda said the winning party would be given the first chance of forming a coalition because that is the Polish tradition.
The original article contains 672 words, the summary contains 179 words. Saved 73%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
safe majority but not enough to counter presidential veto.
What does presidential veto include? Could it, for example, block forming a government that is not led by a specific party?
President can’t block it but will likely delay forming new government by nominating PiS first. This will obviously fail but will give PiS one more month to entrench in some public institutions.
President can veto any law passed by the parliament. To counter that 276 votes are needed.
When are presidential elections?
In 2 years :/
