Friday

29th Mar 2024

Polish ruling party is missing Donald Tusk

  • Donald Tusk, previously Polish PM, is now European Council President (Photo: European Council)

For the first time in seven years Poland's governing centre-right party, Civic Platform (CP), has fallen to third place in public affections.

According to the latest opinion poll, conducted by Millward Brown for TVN24 tv station, just 17 percent of voters plan to back it in October's parliamentary election.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Ewa Kopacz took over from Tusk but her party is suffering in the polls (Photo: "The Council of the European Union")

The populist Law and Justice Party is polling first (25%), while musician-turned-politician Pawel Kukiz is on 20 percent and the newly established liberal group, Nowoczesna.pl, led by a former CP supporter and well known economist Ryszard Petru is on 10 percent.

Only two weeks ago the same opinion poll ranked Civic Platform first, but now, Kukiz and Nowoczesna.pl - seen as the bigger threat - are snapping up CP voters.

"Ryszard Petru addresses all those disappointed Civic Platform voters who still want more liberal economic solutions - a more liberal labour market, lower taxes, less redistribution of income. His programme is similar to what Donald Tusk declared in 2001, when he founded CP", says Wojciech Jablonski, a political scientist from Warsaw University.

That’s why some CP politicians want to get Petru to work together. No proposal was made yet, but he says he is not interested.

"I want to build a political formation of my own," he told EUobserver.

Lost identity

Civic Platform's problems started after party leader and prime minister Donald Tusk left last year for Brussels to take up the post of European Council president.

He was replaced by Ewa Kopacz, who took over both the government and the party leadership. But according to commentators she lacks charisma and political instinct.

"Ewa Kopacz is just a technocratic prime minister but politics is about emotions so her attitude is absolutely not enough", Jablonski said.

There are other problems too.

Following the controversial dismantling of a funded pension scheme and a reluctance - despite promises - to reduce unfair tax and pension privileges for teachers or uniformed services, CP is losing its credibility among the voters.

Even Andrzej Olechowski, a co-founder of CP, supports Ryszard Petru, as does Leszek Balcerowicz, a well-known economist who is the face of Polish post-Communist liberal transformation.

Civic Platform on Tuesday (2 June) met for a closed meeting to work out a strategy to regain popular support.

"The poll results are dramatic, this cannot be denied. But there is no need to change the leadership, we are ready to get back on track," Marek Biernacki, a MP from the party, told media after the meeting.

Party activists want to meet the demands of young people and entrepreneurs.

They also agreed that a referendum should be held on scrapping state-budget financing of political parties and single mandate district elections.

Those two issues were among the most discussed topics during the recent presidential campaign.

Opinion

Poland: Duda victory isn't what you think

Many European commentators have said Duda's victory means Poland has shifted to the right. But the result is more of a protest against an out-of-touch elite.

Tusk extols pragmatism in EU affairs

EU Council chair Tusk has called for a balanced EU policy on migration, warned against treaty change, and said he aims to promote banking and market union.

Ukraine slams grain trade restrictions at EU summit

Restrictions on Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU could translate into military losses in their bid to stop Russia's war, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky warned EU leaders during their summit in Brussels on Thursday.

Opinion

Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Rather than assuming a pro-European Labour government in London will automatically open doors in Brussels, the Labour party needs to consider what it may be able to offer to incentivise EU leaders to factor the UK into their defence thinking.

Latest News

  1. Kenyan traders react angrily to proposed EU clothes ban
  2. Lawyer suing Frontex takes aim at 'antagonistic' judges
  3. Orban's Fidesz faces low-polling jitters ahead of EU election
  4. German bank freezes account of Jewish peace group
  5. EU Modernisation Fund: an open door for fossil gas in Romania
  6. 'Swiftly dial back' interest rates, ECB told
  7. Moscow's terror attack, security and Gaza
  8. Why UK-EU defence and security deal may be difficult

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us