The votes have been counted following Poland’s election that was held over the weekend and the result could see the end of the incumbent right-wing government lead by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
The Justice and Law Party (PiS) won the largest number of votes but not enough to form government in their own right. President Andrzej Duda, who is a former leader of the party, will now have to ask which parties are able to form a coalition to have a majority.
There is no clear path for PiS to get enough seats to form a government, and it is expected that an alliance between opposition parties will see them sworn in as the country’s new leaders.
The final count showed PiS had received 35.4% of the vote, while Civic Coalition, led by Donald Tusk, a former prime minister and European Council president, had 30.7%.
Third Way, a centre-right party, has secured 14.4% of the vote, while the more left wing Lewica, has 8.6%. It is expected that the three parties should be able to put together a coalition that would form a comfortable majority in the 460-seat parliament.
Tusk has asked President Duda to act quickly and not leave the country in waiting.
Since coming to power in 2015 the government had pushed for an extremely conservative approach that had seen an increase in discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender people. Over 100 municipalities in Poland have declared themselves to be ‘LGBT free-zones’.
While LGBT issues were not a focus of the recent election, in 2019 President Duda made it a significant focus of his campaign where he said LGBT ideology was more dangerous than communism.
By comparison Donald Tusk has vowed to introduce legislation recognising same-sex relationships if elected. Local LGBTIQA+ rights activist have welcomed the potential change of government.
OIP Staff, Image: Equality parade on the streets of Warsaw 2019 – Shutterstock.
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