Parliamentary elections are scheduled for Fall 2019 in Poland and voting to the EP is to take place in May 2019. Attendance at elections to the EP are usually low in turnout in Poland – 20 to 25 percent. It will probably increase in the coming year just as it had during the municipal ones, which is a bad sign for PiS. This is because people in major cities usually vote in the EP elections, and PiS had not won in any of the major cities recently.
The argument in favor of early and combined elections is the possibility of mobilizing the right-wing electorate, which usually hasn’t taken part in EP elections
The media reported that the topic of early parliamentary elections had been touched upon during PiS inner circles meetings. The idea was supposedly shot down by chairman Jarosław Kaczyński, however. This is because Kaczyński had called for an early election during his government’s term in 2007, which ended in disaster for PiS as they lost majority in parliament.
Polls show that PiS is ahead, but that may not last forever. The argument in favor of early and combined elections is the possibility of mobilizing the right-wing electorate, which usually hasn’t taken part in EP elections. The issue is that there is no guarantee who will vote in such double elections: whose electorate and with what mindset?
The main counterargument is that if parliamentary and EP elections were combined, then they would have a “European” character. More so than if the parliamentary elections were held in the Fall. This would probably not bring PiS more votes.
