Poland lurches to right with election of Law and Justice party

[ColesCountyDem]

Poland lurches to right with election of Law and Justice party

Alex Duval Smith in Warsaw
Sunday 25 October 2015 17.01 EDT

Poland consolidated its rightwing shift on Sunday as exit polls showed voters had handed an absolute majority in its parliamentary election to Law and Justice, a Eurosceptic party that is against immigration, wants family-focused welfare spending and has threatened to ban abortion and in-vitro fertilisation.

The current ruling party, Civic Platform, conceded defeat following the first exit poll, published by Ipsos moments after polling stations closed at 9pm (8pm GMT), which gave the national conservative Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice party) 39.1% of the vote, putting it far ahead of Civic Platform on 23.4%.

Jarosław Kaczyński, Law and Justice’s chairman and the twin brother of Poland’s late president Lech, immediately declared victory. Speaking to supporters at his party headquarters in central Warsaw, a triumphant Kaczynski said: “We will not kick those who have fallen... We need to show that Polish public life can be different.”

If the polling is confirmed, the result would give Law and Justice 242 seats in the 460-member lower house of parliament, meaning the party could govern alone and that its lead candidate, 52-year-old Beata Szydło, is likely to be appointed prime minister....

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/25/poland-lurches-to-right-with-election-of-law-and-justice-party

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1. This ought to be different. nt

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2. In deepest rural Poland, politics is shaped by love of church … and hatred of Brussels

The gigantic green-and-yellow tractor should be the pride and joy of Janusz Wnorowski’s humble farmyard. But the 57-year-old milk farmer associates the John Deere with the debt and bureaucracy that have visited him since Poland joined the European Union.

“Whom I vote for is a religious decision, not a political one,’’ he says, suggesting he will choose the ultra-conservative Law and Justice party of President Andrzej Duda. Tacitly endorsed by the powerful Roman Catholic Church, Law and Justice is seen in this village as a tool for Jesus Christ to give John Deere – and thus the EU – a good hiding.

Law and Justice may not win Sunday’s parliamentary and senate elections outright. But surveys suggest its rise will consolidate Poland’s shift to the right. It is expected to finish first, at least 10% ahead of the governing centrist Civic Platform. Law and Justice flirts with racism, homophobia and antisemitism. But in Kulesze Kościelne, a village about 200km northeast of Warsaw, it is all about milk.

“Since we joined the EU in 2004, our government has not fought for Poland,’’ says Wnorowski, who has 95 cows. “All this,’’ he says, pointing to the John Deere and a range of alterations imposed by EU rules, “is unnecessary on our small farms.’’ One outbuilding carries an EU plaque, showing that it was built with a grant.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/25/law-and-justice-poland-drift-to-right

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3. Winner of Poland's election eyes bank tax on assets as of 2016

Oct 25 Poland's Law and Justice (PiS) party, which an exit poll indicated as the decisive winner of Sunday's parliamentary election, wants to tax banks' assets at 0.39 percent starting in 2016, the party's leading economic expert Zbigniew Kuzmiuk said.

Kuzmiuk also said a new PiS government would respect the independence of the Polish central bank but expects all state institutions to support economic growth in the country.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/25/poland-election-winner-economy-idUSR4N10B02420151025