Last month’s European elections have confirmed that the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) continues to be the dominant party in Polish politics. They have also underlined the difficulties facing the major opposition parties, which suffered a resounding defeat despite the creation of a broad electoral alliance – European Coalition (KE) – against PiS. With parliamentary elections in November, the results raise the question of whether Poland’s opposition parties should continue their strategy of running as bloc against PiS.
The growth of right-wing authoritarian and nationalist leaders and parties has opened up sharp social and political divisions in many countries, including Poland. In response, some have argued that in order to defeat right-wing populists like Victor Orban, Jair Bolsonaro, and Donald Trump, opposition parties must form a coalition. In the UK, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable had similar ambitions for forming a pro-Remain bloc in the EU elections. The argument runs that these administrations threaten democracy and that the major opposition parties should therefore temporarily place their differences to one side. Such thinking was taken to its extreme by the most internationally renowned scholar on populism, Cas Mudde, who stated before last year’s Hungarian parliamentary elections that the liberal democratic opposition parties should even form an alliance with the far-right Jobbik party.
The Polish opposition parties tried this strategy at the European elections. The major opposition party, Citizens’ Platform (PO), allied with the agrarian Polish People’s Party (PSL), the liberal party Modern, the centre-left Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) and the Greens. The results were disastrous.
