Chapter 10 A Dress Rehearsal: European Elections in Poland before the Parliamentary Race
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Abstract
The elections to the European Parliament in 2019 in Poland might be considered as an exit poll before parliamentary elections scheduled for autumn of 2019. This testing ground created an opportunity for political parties to implement some innovations in their programmes and organisational strategies. The opportunity concerned Law and Justice which was challenged by the European Union’s requirement that Law and Justice government followed the rule of law principles. This stance of the EU was supported by the majority of Poles according to opinion polls conducted in December of 2018 by ipsos. Another problem was faced by the opposition parties. It might be shortly summed up as follows: together or separately. Eventually, along with consolidation of a large part of the opposition, emergence of a new party was observed. It was The Spring, led by Robert Biedroń whose objectives included promotion of lgbt rights and introducing supervision of funding of the Catholic Church. The Spring might become the major competitor of Civic Platform, the biggest opposition party.