Exit polls from Poland’s local elections on Sunday showed the conservative opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) in the lead, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition winning most of the big cities.
According to an exit poll by Ipsos, PiS came first with 33.7 per cent, contrary to most pre-election polls, and if this result is confirmed, it will have won the election.
Tusk’s party, the Civic Coalition (KO), came in second with 31.9 per cent.
“Our ninth victory should encourage us to work even harder,” said PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, recalling that they had also won the parliamentary elections last October, but then failed to win a parliamentary majority and lost power in the country to the coalition led by Tusk.
The PiS leader added that the next task was to “win the EU and presidential elections before trying to win the next parliamentary elections”.
The PiS is currently in power in six regions, while preliminary results show that Tusk will retain power in 16 regions.
Meanwhile, only 51.5 per cent of the population voted, 4.4 percentage points less than in the previous local elections and a big drop compared to the 74.4 per cent who voted in the parliamentary elections.
“Four months ago, from this very place, we shouted with joy that we had taken back Poland from those who took away our democracy and dashed our hopes,” Tusk recalled in a statement.
As in October, he added, these results show that it will not be easy to remove the PiS from power.
Government supporters win in Warsaw and Gdansk
KO retained power in Warsaw, where incumbent mayor Rafał Trzaskowski won a second term with 59.8% of the vote in the first round. PiS candidate Tobiasz Bocheński came second with 18.5% of the vote.
In Gdańsk, incumbent mayor Aleksandra Dulkiewicz of KO (62.3%) won another term in office in a landslide victory over PiS candidate Tomasz Rakowski (12.2%) in the first round.
A second round of voting is likely in Krakow, Poland’s second largest city. According to the exit poll, Aleksander Miszalski of KO was ahead of independent candidate Łukasz Gibała (28.4 per cent) with 39.4 per cent.
If no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote in the official results, they will face each other in a run-off on 21 April. Whoever wins will succeed former mayor Jacek Majchrowski, who has governed Krakow since 2002.
In Katowice, independent mayor Marcin Krupa, backed by KO, also won 66.5 per cent of the vote, ahead of PiS’s Leszek Piechota (9.7 per cent).
In Wroclaw, incumbent mayor Jacek Sutryk (an independent backed by KO) will also take part in the second round and, according to the exit poll, received 38.9% of the vote, ahead of Izabela Bodnar (Third Way), who received 31.4%.
Coalition parties split over results
The Third Way coalition is satisfied with the results. Szymon Hołownia, parliamentary spokesman for the Poland 2050 party, argued that it was now possible to speak of a “third force” in Polish politics.
Tusk’s other coalition partner, the New Left, is not happy with the results. Despite promising pre-election polls, the party’s candidate, Magdalena Biejat, came third in Warsaw. With only 6.8 per cent of the vote, the party came fifth behind the anti-EU Confederation Party.
“Local elections have always been the hardest for the left,” said New Left co-leader Włodzimierz Czarzasty, admitting that the party was not satisfied with the results.
