(Prime Minister Donald) Tusk wins second term in Poland

[pampango]

Source: Euronews

Exit polls in the Polish General Election suggest Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Civic Platform are heading for victory.

The centrist has held power since 2007. If re-elected it will be the first time since 1989 that an outgoing Polish administration has been returned to office. Tusk has already said he will renew his current coalition. “I know that the next four years will be an even greater challenge because we will have to work twice as hard and react twice as quickly, and this is because all Poles have the right to an ever-increasing standard of living,” he said.

From euphoria at Civic Platform headquarters to the sound of deflating balloons at the opposition Law and Justice party. Jaroslaw Kaczyinki will have to wait another four years to have a second crack at Poland’s top job. “A big part of the Polish people think that what is happening now is good. I respect their decision,” he said.

The surprise has been the sudden capture of 10 percent of the votes by a party that didn’t exist a year ago. Janusz Palikot’s eponymous Movement has surged into parliament on a platform of leftist liberal social and economic policies, support for gay marriage and legalised soft drugs, and opposition to Roman Catholic power and privilege in public life.

Read more: http://www.euronews.net/2011/10/09/tusk-wins-second-term-in-poland/

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Good that the Law and Justice party remains out of power in Poland. It's a right wing, anti-EU party.

"Law and Justice (abbreviated to PiS) is a right-wing, conservative political party in Poland."

"The party programme is dominated by the Kaczyński's anti-corruption, conservative, law and order agenda. It has embraced economic interventionism, while maintaining a socially conservative stance that moved in 2005 towards the Catholic Church. The party is eurosceptic; PiS is a member of the anti-federalist Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists and its eleven MEPs sit in the ECR Group."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_and_Justice

The other good news is that the new liberal party came out of nowhere to win 10% of the vote. Nice to see another European country kick the right from power (keep them out of power in Poland's case) and continue the resurgence fo the left in Europe.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Not a fan of Tusk, but he was the lesser of the evils here

And glad to here that there is now a genuine liberal-left party, even if it only got 10% of the vote, but that is not a bad beginning.

[xchrom]

2. +1

[izquierdista]

4. I'm sure he will make us all proud

If you think the U.S. has horrible political advertising, you haven't seen the empty slogans on Polish billboards.

[Blue_Tires]

3. Good to hear

I thought the far right was still in control there....

[pampango]

5. NYT: Palikot’s Party Signals Poland’s Move Toward a More Secular, Liberal Society

The parliamentary election on Sunday revealed the depth of change that Polish society has undergone over the past generation. Long pigeonholed as deeply conservative and devoutly Roman Catholic, many Poles have drifted away from the church and seek a secular state more in step with Western Europe.

No party better encapsulates those changes than the new Palikot Movement. The philosophy student turned entrepreneur turned politician has upended conventional wisdom and ignored a tradition of tiptoeing around the church. He has campaigned to create civil unions for gay people, to legalize abortion and even to end religious education in state schools.

The sensation of the night, however, was Mr. Palikot and the loose alliance that gathered under the umbrella of his famous — or infamous — name. “There is a growing culture of change in Poland thanks to the fact that millions of Poles work in the European Union, and thousands more study abroad in European countries", Mr. Palikot said.

Political analysts interpreted the parliamentary vote Sunday as a signal that Poland would continue down the road of openness rather than slipping back into the insularity and conservatism of the past, a development that Mr. Palikot said he welcomed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/11/world/europe/polands-palikot-movement-signals-a-changing-society.html?_r=1&ref=europe

Nice to see that Poland's integration into the EU is going so well and contributing to fundamental changes in Polish political and cultural attitudes.