In the aftermath of the October 15 general election in Poland, the Law and Justice (PiS) party, despite securing the majority of seats, finds itself in a precarious position regarding coalition-building. A senior PiS member emphasized the importance of assessing the true level of support within the party to effectively establish an opposition bloc in the new parliament.
While PiS emerged with the most seats, it fell short of a ruling majority in both houses of parliament. The prospect of forming a coalition government appears slim, as no other political party has shown interest in collaborating with the socially-conservative PiS.
Although PiS did not formalize a coalition, the United Right, led by PiS, included representatives from three other political parties – Sovereign Poland, the Republican Party, and Kukiz’15 – in the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament. Notably, out of the 194 seats won by this ‘coalition,’ 157 belong to PiS members.
Complicating matters further, some individuals elected from PiS lists, including Pawel Kukiz, Jaroslaw Sachajko, and Marek Jakubiak, have chosen to establish the Kukiz’15 parliamentary circle, distancing themselves from the PiS parliamentary caucus.
In response to this internal challenge, Marek Pek, a PiS senator, announced on Polish state-owned Radio Three that PiS intends to seek solemn declarations from the allied groupings. Pek stressed the need for clarity within the United Right, urging the smaller entities that constitute the coalition to decide unequivocally whether they align with PiS.
“As we are most likely to be in opposition, it is crucial that we assess our collective stance from the outset, determining who supports us on both programmatic and ideological grounds, rather than opportunistically,” Pek remarked.
Reiterating PiS’s aspiration to remain the dominant force in the United Right, Pek emphasized the necessity of understanding one’s position within the ranks.