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EurActiv (19 February 2019)

Poland’s centre-right Civic Platform (European People’s Party) has joined forces with other opposition parties in a “European Coalition” in order to challenge the ruling ultra-conservative Law and Justice party (PiS). EURACTIV Poland reports.

For the socialist Democratic Left Alliance (SLD/S&D) and the Greens, there is only one way to defeat the conservative ruling PiS in the EU elections in May, and it was to join forces with Civic Platform, the largest opposition party.

The idea has received the support of ten former prime ministers and foreign ministers, such as Jerzy Buzek and Radek Sikorski. Civic Platform politicians have called on all opposition parties to go for a united grand coalition.

So far the two parties have joined, while the Polish People’s Party (PSL/EPP) and liberal Modern (.N/ALDE) are also expected to make up their minds about joining the alliance this week.

Such a broad coalition would guarantee that a pro-EU alliance could directly compete with the ruling conservatives.

According to a poll conducted by Ipsosfor OKO.press, such a pro-EU alliance could count on 33.2% of the vote, compared to 33.9% for PiS.

If the parties ran alone in the EU elections, only the Civic Platform would be able to cross the 5% election threshold as it could get 23.9% of the vote. But this is not the case for PSL (3.95%) and .N (1.33%).

However, not all pro-European parties want to join the pro-EU push.

For instance, Wiosna, a recently established party of progressive Robert Biedroń, has vowed to “refresh” Polish politics and decided to run alone in the EU elections. It is projected to get approximately 12% of the vote.

Similarly, leftist Razem party does not want to join the pro-EU alliance either, amid fears that its leftist beliefs may be “affected” by the collaboration with centre-right or liberal ideas, Adrian Zandberg, one of its leaders explained.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]