Poll: Ruling party trails opposition by six percent
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
11.10.2013 08:55
As the mayor of Warsaw campaigns ahead of a recall referendum on Sunday, a new poll shows her party, Civic Platform, trailing the conservative opposition by six percentage points.
graphic: PR
The opinion poll by CBOS found that Law and Justice (PiS) is on 28 percent support, the ruling Civic Platform (PO) on 22 percent, with the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) trailing on 8 percent.
The junior coalition partner, the rural-based Polish Peasant party (PSL) is on 6 percent support, according to the poll, just one percentage point above the five percent threshold for qualifying for seats in the lower house of parliament (Sejm).
The next general election in Poland is scheduled for 2015, though the Civic Platform/PSL majority in parliament has been cut to the bone recently after the defection of right winger Jaroslaw Gowin and two other MPs, which could mean a snap election if any more politicians left the ruling party.
A key test of Civic Platform's popularity - damaged by an economic slowdown and a feeling that the party has lost its way mid-way through its second successive term in government - comes on Sunday, where a recall referendum on the fate of incumbent Warsaw mayor and prominent Civic Platform member Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz has been forced by her opponents.
Reuters is reporting that Civic Platform and the ex-communist SLD could form a coalition after the next election, even if Law and Justice, as polls suggest currently, is the largest party in the next parliament.
All other parties have said they would not enter into coalition with Law and Justice under its leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, due to the polarizing style of its politics.
Which leaves Civic Platform searching for coalition partners.
Leszek Millar, leader of SLD, which is a descendant of the former communist party in Poland, has said he was open to forming a coalition with Civic Platform, with setting a timetable for the joining the eurozone being a key conditional.
A senior politician from Civic Platform told Reuters, anonymously, that the party was looking at the possibility of forming a coalition with SLD if it were to come second in an election.
The politician said that the support SLD gives Civic Platform on pension reform in the current parliament will be key to seeing if it is possible the two parties could work together in parliament. (pg)