[The Times], !日報 Daily News, Poland’s ruling party claims victory in general election

Poland’s ruling conservative nationalist party has claimed victory in the general election of the deeply divided nation.

“We have victory,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, told his supporters at in Warsaw after late exit polls indicated that he had won more than 40 per cent of the vote.

“We have four years of hard work ahead. Poland must change more and it must change for the better,” he said.

“We received a lot but we deserve more,” he added, pointing to projections which indicate the PiS will fall well short of the 307 seats required to change the constitution.

Official results this morning from 82.8 per cent of constituencies indicated that the PiS had won 45.2 per cent of the vote, with full results expected later.

The strong showing will nevertheless secure the continuation of the party’s wide-ranging reform programme in its second four-year term. This has included reforms to the judiciary, which have caused concern in the European Union.

The biggest opposition group, the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), secured 25.5 per cent of the vote. The leftist alliance, Lewica Razem, received 10.9 per cent, followed closely by the bloc of agrarian PSL and anti-system Kukiz’15, which won 9.8 per cent. The far-right Confederation is expected to receive 6.6 per cent.

Konrad Piasecki, a prominent Polish journalist, called the results “the largest triumph in the history of parliament elections” in Poland, with a voter turnout estimated to be 60 per cent.

The winning PiS has promised a “Polish version of the welfare state”. They have run on a platform of vast welfare programmes — with a 100 per cent rise in the minimum wage, increased retirement benefits and western-level subsidies for Poland’s farmers — all financed by an economic boom.

The controversial reforms span the justice system, the media, cultural institutions, banking and the energy sector. Experts fear court reforms could undermine judicial independence and the party’s anti-gay rhetoric could spell uncertainty for LGBT rights in Poland.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/polands-ruling-party-claims-victory-in-general-election-dqzh3fnft