Populists win Poland vote, raising fears of new EU tensions

Poland's governing right-wing populist party won a weekend election, full official results showed on Monday, retaining a parliamentary majority that could allow it to pursue a judicial reform agenda that has put it at loggerheads with the EU.

The triumph by the Law and Justice (PiS) party followed a campaign focused on a raft of new welfare measures coupled with attacks on LGBT rights and Western values.

Terming the victory a "huge success", PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, widely regarded as Poland's ultimate powerbroker, said his party had "obtained a mandate to continue our good change... to continue to change Poland."

Since it took office in 2015, the PiS has in many ways upended Polish politics by limiting liberal democracy through a string of controversial court reforms that have stoked tension with the EU, as well as through its monopolization of public media, among other measures.

Kaczynski has focused on crafting a central European brand of illiberal democracy similar to that forged by Viktor Orban in Hungary, according to observers.

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The PiS scored 43.59 percent of the popular vote, for 235 seats, according to full official results presented by the state elections commission on Monday.

Up to now it controlled 239 of the 460 seats in the lower house of parliament. The opposition Civic Coalition (KO) scored 27.40 percent support for 134 seats.

It draws support mainly from urban voters upset by the PiS's divisive politics, controversial judicial reforms and graft scandals.

The PiS lost control of the senate, or upper house, taking 48 of the 100 seats, something analysts said would provide a check on the party's legislative drives.

Turnout for Sunday's election tallied at 61.74 percent, the highest since Poland shed communism in 1989.

Kaczynski has stoked deep social division by attacking sexual minorities and rejecting Western liberal values, all with the tacit blessing of Poland's influential Catholic Church which holds sway over rural voters.

He is among several populist leaders in the European Union seeking greater national sovereignty over the federalism championed by France and Germany.

The PiS has also sought favor with the Donald Trump administration in a bid to reinforce Poland's security within the NATO alliance and as a bulwark against Russia, its Soviet-era master with whom tensions still run high.

A tight labor market in the economically vibrant EU country of 38 million people saw it become the world's top temporary migrant labor destination in 2017, according to the OECD.

(Source: AFP)

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