Domestic Politics in Poland, June 2019 Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska

Home , Marek Sawicki, Polish Coalition

ISSN: 2560-1601

Vol. 19, No. 1 (PL)

June 2019

Poland political briefing: Domestic Politics in Poland, June 2019 Joanna Ciesielska-Klikowska

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Domestic Politics in Poland, June 2019

In Polish domestic policy, there is a festival of settlements in connection with the result of elections to the European Parliament. Right-wing groups - first of all Law and Justice Party and its coalition partners, celebrate success and enjoy the advantage they received in the May 2019 European elections. Opposition groupings are looking for culprits of their defeat and ideas for campaign for the parliamentary elections in autumn. Although the headlines of the newspapers are dominated by the never-ending game and competition between the PiS and the Civic Platform, it is worth looking at an oldest Polish political party with 125 years of tradition, a party that for the last 30 years was a frequent coalition partner in successive governments, and now is experiencing a serious crisis – Polish Peoples Party.

Settlement of elections to the European Parliament During the last Supreme Council of Polish Peoples Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL), which took place on June 1, 2019, the party’s leader Władysław Kosiniak Kamysz, announced that his party would create an independent block of parties with which it would take part in the autumn parliamentary elections. It means that the PSL is going out of the European Coalition, causing this way the first split in the coalition of Polish central and liberal groupings made especially for the elections to the European Parliament. Members of the European Coalition hoped to extend the cooperation and create one party block that would counterbalance the victorious right-wing camp, and in particular the ruling party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS).

In general, the results of the elections to the European Parliament, even though the European Coalition survived a defeat (it gained 38.5% of votes, PiS on the contrary – 45.4%), showed that the PSL is still respected in the countryside, where its traditional electorate comes from, but loses its voters for Law and Justice. Despite everything, the party’s candidates have won three seats in the EP, which is only one less than in the elections five years ago. Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz officially recognized the result as “decent”, and the results of the PSL MEPs as “historical” and “good”. Indeed never before has the party’s candidates obtained such support: the vice-president Adam Jarubas got 130,000 votes, the second vice-president Krzysztof Hetman and Jarosław Kalinowski received over 100,000 votes. Even Urszula

Pasławska, also the vice-president of the party who did not get to the European Parliament, gathered about 60,000 votes.

Yet immediately after the announcement of voting results, PSL leaders began to distance themselves from their allies in the European Coalition. Kosiniak-Kamysz said that the alliance with other parties, and especially with the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska, PO) was established only for the time of the elections to the European Parliament and is no longer functioning, so possible future cooperation must be discussed in details. Also one of the prominent politicians of the party Marek Sawicki argued, that there is no way to repeat the „experiment” in the autumn campaign to Polish Parliament.

Reasons for the PiS victory in the countryside, reasons for the PSL defeat It is a fact that despite obtaining a “decent” number of seats, the PSL have cause for concern. The voter turnout was lethal for them (very high as for Polish conditions - 45.68%). The high turnout in the country was obtained in these elections thanks to the voices of the Polish village, but also to cities of up to 50,000 residents. They were mobilized because they combined their interest with PiS’s interest. It was the PiS politicians who travelled through provincial Poland that the electorate effectively mobilized, threatening citizens with the vision of the European Coalition, which would take away the social benefits granted by PiS and destroy the Christian traditions and values in which they grew up. Of course the European Coalition has also warned people against PiS - that PiS will lead to rising inflation, rising living costs, and food export collapse. But people in the countryside look at politics through the prism of immediate benefits, not in the long run. PiS in their campaign in 2015 promised a lot, but when it won the power, it fulfilled most promises. Thanks to this, it is now perceived in the countryside as a safety guarantee of the future. On the contrary – the European Coalition and its member parties could not break through with their stories about European values, or budget debts caused by state indebtness.

PiS also won votes with its „dignity Policy”. In Polish countryside it is important to protect the land against redemption by foreigners - PiS assured that Polish land will not be sold to foreigners, which caused this party additional votes from farmers who are afraid of taking over land by wealthy investors from abroad or are afraid to give the land back to the Jewish heirs living in Poland before World War II. This is a direct reference to the discussion that sparked in Poland after the disclosure that American congressmen were in favor of the Justice for Uncompensated Survivors Today Act of 2017 (S447) – an initiative regarding the restitution

2 of property once incumbent on Jews. US Congressmen have announced they are considering introducing new regulations to force the administration of Donald Trump to demand that Poland settle claims matters before the United States agrees to establish a permanent US military base, the so-called „Fort Trump”.

PSL Supreme Council These reasons for the failure were therefore the basis for a discussion on the future of the PSL during the last Supreme Council of this party (June 1, 2019). The convention was very turbulent and the discussions lasted for many hours. According to the majority of the members of Polish People’s Party, the European Coalition proved to be too wide, and the common purpose was not strong enough. That is why the PSL decided to go its own way during the autumn elections but the grouping is open to all those who share its values (i.e. patriotism, Christianity) and would be eager to create a joint coalition, the so-called Polish Coalition (in opposition to the European Coalition). The party hopes that the Kukiz’15 grouping and non- party politicians, centered around the Non-Party Local Government (Bezpartyjni Samorządowcy), could enter the coalition. The party also counts on the support of the more conservative voters of the Civic Platform, who oppose its recent too liberal moves (eg the acceptance of the LGBT card) and count on the mobilization of voters who until now were not active participants in the voting process or did not participate in the elections at all.

According to the PSL politicians this possible future coalition would promote the principle of state subsidiarity - that is, the development of self-governance. In addition, PSL postulates, inter alia: • free medicines and vaccines for children; • a tax-free pension, which is more advantageous for pensioners than the 13th retirement implemented by Law and Justice Party this year; • promoting „good Polish food” (0% VAT on certified healthy food); • extension of the 500+ program to the end of studies, i.e. 26 years of age; • increase in payments per hectare to PLN 1.200 (EUR 280); • decrease in tax rates for entrepreneurs: 10% income tax for self-employed.

This is an valuable plan and an interesting proposal for voters, but at the same time few of them can believe in the success of this program - the PSL has no chance to win the elections and its only hope for the cooperation is paradoxically a possible entry into the future government of Law and Justice.

Conclusion If the PSL really will decide to built the Polish Coalition, they must show their separateness from the European Coalition and its member parties, and especially identity based on values close to the inhabitants of the Polish province. They must seek support in a group of voters with conservative-liberal views who do not want to vote for the European Coalition or Civic Platform itself because of its too liberal views.

An opportunity for the PSL to play a political role is actually to rebuild its program. The PSL must try to reach the wider electorate, the inhabitants of the cities, because every year the number of people working on the land and living from agriculture decreases, therefore the natural background of the PSL is shrinking. Of the 1.4 million recipients of direct subsidies from the European Union, only approximately 300,000 can be considered as real farmers, involved in village development, having their own farms, orchards etc. The rest are people who do posses land and live in the countryside, but are inactive as farmers although receive financial support from the EU. So this 1.100,000 inhabitants of villages are a social electorate for whom state aid and national slogans matter the most – for them the PSL has nothing to propose. It is not enough to rely on 125 years of PSL tradition, to spool with the slogans about the power of the oldest peasant party in the country, which can not be eradicated. It is not the PSL but PiS that is now a people’s party.

If somehow PiS loses its influence, and it probably will happen when there is no money in the budget for further donations to the electorate, its place may not be taken by PSL, but by a new leader who will seem more attractive. Therefore the party has little chance of regaining its former power in the countryside today, which is why independent start in the autumn elections may bring a defeat and PSL may even not get into the Sejm and the Senate. It is a serious challenge and risk at the same time.