Recent polling has revealed that Poles are split over who should replace the current leader of the outgoing governing Law and Justice (PiS) party following the party’s fall from power.
A survey by SW Research for rp.pl asked Poles: “Who, in your opinion, could become the successor to Jarosław Kaczyński as the PiS party leader?”
The politician with the most votes was current Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki with 15.4 percent, followed in second place by incumbent Polish President Andrzej Duda with 10.4 percent.
Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak received 6.6 percent of the vote while former Prime Minister Beata Szydło and current Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro received 5.3 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively.
However, almost one in five respondents (18 percent) chose none of the above, opting for “another politician,” while 39.9 percent had no opinion on the matter.
Although Kaczyński’s party won the elections by securing 194 seats, the opposition has the potential to form a government since the Civic Coalition, the Third Way, and the New Left together hold 248 seats, enough to enjoy a parliamentary majority.
In the latest elections, PiS garnered the votes of 7.6 million Poles, whereas the incoming opposition lists received 11.2 million votes. This is over 3 million more than PiS achieved in 2019 and the Civic Platform (PO)-Polish People’s Party (PSL) in 2007. Voter turnout was at 74.38 percent, the highest since 1989.
President Andrzej Duda, after consultations with representatives from all electoral committees, stated that there are “two serious candidates for prime minister” — Mateusz Morawiecki and Donald Tusk.
