‘Emotional and proud’: Voters on Poland’s landmark election results | Poland

‘Whoever I talk to, it’s relief and hope’

Wojciech Bałka, a 42-year-old IT worker in Kraków, has watched with concern in recent years as Poland moved away from democracy and towards autocracy. But after a landmark election on Sunday, that will probably see the ruling populist Law and Justice (PiS) party leave government after eight years, Bałka said he’s relieved. “Whoever I talk to, it’s relief and hope,” he said. “And some anxiety – because it’s not yet the change in government.”

Despite gaining the most votes, the rightwing PiS has no clear path to form a majority – which means Poland will most likely see a grand coalition led by the ex-prime minister and former European Council president Donald Tusk.

The vote represents a setback for populism and an opportunity for Poland to change course after PiS rolled back abortion rights, eroded the rule of law and directed hostility towards minorities and immigrants. It’s a significant shift for the European Union’s fifth most-populous country.

Wojciech Bałka, 42, said it was refreshing to feel an atmosphere of hope and optimism in Kraków again. Photograph: Wojciech Bałka/Guardian Community

“The best interest of Poland is staying in the EU and supporting Ukraine,” Bałka said. “Keeping this wave of autocracy and corruption as far away as possible. We can see what’s happened in Hungary, for example, [which] used to be a democratic country and now it’s autocratic, supporting Russia.”

Bałka, who voted for the centre-right Third Way, felt PiS was reversing its initial support for Ukraine’s war against Russian aggression to gain votes from farmersin an effort to protect Poland’s grain market. “I was really worried about it, because it’s totally against the national interest,” Bałka said. “It’s very much our war. We think that we are next, basically – if Ukraine doesn’t stop Putin, then it’s really dangerous.”

He was relieved that PiS has not questioned the integrity of the election result. “There were fears that they would try to do anything to stay in power,” he said.

Unlike many older people who voted PiS, Bałka’s 72-year-old father, who fought against communism, was “very happy” with the result. “My father was an activist then and he’s an activist now,” he said.

‘PiS are leaving the government but they are not leaving power’

Not all voters were as optimistic, however. Pawel, a 40-year-old lawyer based in Warsaw, said: “PiS are leaving the government but they are not leaving power.”

Pawel was referring to the fact that the president, Andrzej Duda, supported by PiS, wields veto power over legislation; to the “toxic” rhetoric spread by PiS on state broadcaster TVP, which he fears will continue to divide the nation; and undermine the country’s rule of law.

The European Commission referred Poland to the European court of justice in February, after a 2021 ruling Poland’s constitutional tribunal declared measures imposed by the ECJ unconstitutional – seen as an assault on the independence of the judiciary.

Pawel, who is gay, said “having this anti-LGBT rhetoric from the government and from their controlled television and its influence on the public debate has been very unpleasant”, he said.

Pawel said he doubted Tusk’s coalition would prioritise strengthening LGBTQ rights – such as adding sexual orientation and gender expression to Poland’s protected categories in hate crime legislation. And he worried “they will not be able to do anything for as long as this president stays in power and as long as those judges are in power, they will probably block all those [LGBTQ] efforts.”

‘We felt it was our duty’

More than 608,000 Poles registered to vote in the election from another country. Marta Collins in the UK was one them. She recalled getting in the car at 8am on Sunday and driving three hours to Bristol from Cornwall, waiting almost two hours in line to cast an election ballot at a Polish voting station, then going back home again, arriving at 7pm. It was worth it.

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Marta Collins, who waited hours in Bristol to vote in the pivotal election, was also happy to see voters reject the ‘biased’ PiS referendum questions Photograph: Marta Collins/Guardian Community

As she drove along the motorway with a friend, Collins thought, “every vote will count in this situation”. “We felt it was our duty,” she said of Polish people voting from abroad.

“You could tell that people were fed up with the government and they just wanted a change,” Collins, 46, said of the queue of Polish voters in Bristol, which she described as “such a nice atmosphere”. She arrived apprehensive about the chances of Tusk’s centre-left coalition forming a government; after speaking to voters in the line, she left thinking: “There is hope – maybe, just maybe!”

Collins, a conference planner, said the turnout made her “emotional and proud” and that she could be “hopeful” again under a Poland led by Tusk, who is “proudly European”.

Polish nationals queue at polling stations in Bristol to cast vote – video

Since 2021, Poland has banned almost all abortions and criminalised those seeking or administering them. “There were a lot of instances where women actually died because they couldn’t have an abortion in time,” Collins said. She feels a “very important factor” in women turning out to vote for the opposition was that “under the current government the abortion laws were so strict and conservative”.

Collins did not expect abortion to become as available as in the UK under Tusk, given the country’s Catholicism, but said: “Part of the reason why women felt so motivated to vote this time in the elections is because they want to have more tolerance, they want to have more freedom, they want to be able to make decisions about their own bodies.”

‘Nothing is clear at the moment’

Other voters like Agnieszka Zielińska think PiS might still have a chance to form a government. “It’s a difficult situation but it’s not a victory for the opposition,” she said.

Zielińska, 44, who considers herself a “neutral observer” and is neither pro or against PiS, said there may be hope for the party to form a coalition with the Polish People’s party (PSL) and Poland 2050. “Nothing is clear at the moment,” said Zielińska.

Agnieszka Zielińska, 44, doesn’t believe the result means a victory for the opposition. Photograph: Agnieszka Zielińska/Guardian Community

The university administrator from Wrocław feels the country is “very divided” and there are concerns from some about what a Tusk-led coalition might mean. “Local communities living in the countryside tend to support PiS because they fear a liberal government will lose interest in them,” she said. “They worry that changing things like the benefit system will leave them poorer.”

Zielińska said she is “looking for stabilisation” especially with what is happening in Ukraine. “For many living in the eastern part of Poland there is fear the situation may develop with Russia.

“PiS is right wing but doesn’t want any involvement with Moscow. Tusk and the opposition might look to Brussels for help and that could take decision-making away from us.”