report
There are signs of lively participation in the parliamentary elections in Poland. The vote is also a fundamental decision about the future of the country. A report from a divided country.
Everywhere in Warsaw you can meet people on their way to the polling stations in the morning. Public transport is now free, and even e-scooter operators offer free rides. By 12 p.m., voter turnout was 22.59 percent, almost four and a half percent higher than the 2019 election.
Traveled from Manchester for the election
Election offices abroad in particular have recorded record numbers of voter registrations in recent days. Katarzyna and Bogdan stand in front of a polling station in the Ursynów district of Warsaw. They came especially from Manchester in England, they say – to vote out the PiS
“We left Poland in 1992. Back then, Poland was a nobody. For years we were proud of what happened here, because the country developed, was predictable, well-organized and always European. But this government is driving us back into a world that we don’t want because we’ve already been there,” says Bogdan. Katarzyna adds that she wants Poland to become a country of happy people again.
In the run-up to the elections, the Polish government made it difficult for many Poles abroad to vote. The counts were complicated. However, if a polling station fails to count all the votes cast within the 24-hour period, they expire – all of them. So many people prefer to travel to Poland to make sure that their vote really counts.
Hope for a “more open, tolerant Poland”
Maya didn’t have to travel that far. She lives around the corner: “These are the first elections I’m allowed to take part in. I just turned 18 and I’m happy that I can take part in Poland’s change.” She hopes that tomorrow she will wake up in a “better, open, tolerant Poland for everyone.”
Warsaw is traditionally tough territory for the PiS, say many here. In the Warsaw suburb of Halinów, the world looks different. “These elections are very important because the developments of the last few years have been very good for me and my family,” says Dorota. That’s why she hopes that everyone, “including young people, makes a responsible choice.”
Mobilization by all means
The PiS mobilized as best it could, especially in rural areas. Among other things, with the idea of holding a referendum parallel to the parliamentary election: four leading questions on migration, border protection, retirement age and foreign investments, which are not up for debate politically, but which create a mood.
That’s why many in Warsaw followed the opposition’s call and boycotted the referendum. “It doesn’t benefit anyone. It’s just a trick to spend money,” says Małgorzata. The referendum will be financed from the state budget, not from the PiS’s election campaign budget. Piotr also believes that it is clearly an election campaign maneuver. “The questions in the referendum are tendentious and pointless.”
You can vote until 9 p.m. Then comes a forecast – and with it an indication of the direction in which the country is heading.