Belgium (Brussels Morning Newspaper), The European Green Party has urged Polish citizens to go to the polls in the country’s elections on Sunday.
In an open message, Thomas Waitz and Mélanie Vogel, the European Greens co-chairs, said, “Dear Polish friends, on Sunday, you can make your voice heard.”
“You can put an end to the hard 8 years of Law and Justice government”.
Waitz and Vogel said they wished its Polish member party, Zieloni (The Greens), “every success” in Sunday’s national elections.
Their statement added, “The government led by Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS), member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party (ECR), has turned its back on human rights, the rule of law, climate policy and Europe.
“The rally of a million Polish citizens on October the 1st showed that the Polish citizens want a change,” it added.
Małgorzata Tracz, a member of the European Green Party Committee, and running as number 2 on the KO list in the Wroclaw constituency, says: “This Sunday is a big day. 30 million Polish voters will decide what kind of Poland we want – one that leans towards an illiberal democracy, or one that stands proudly with Europe and builds a social and sustainable future. This isn’t an abstract debate.
“Whether it’s the right to a safe abortion, the purity of our rivers, the protection of our forests, or the freedom of journalists, these issues affect me personally, as they do so many people in Poland”.
Waitz and Vogel concluded: “This isn’t just a local fight; it’s a European one. A win for the current PiS-led government would be a loss for Europe. It could divide the EU even more on critical issues like human rights, the rule of law, and climate action. Zieloni is fighting hard to get better healthcare, a fair transition to cleaner energy, functional bike lanes, and the preservation of the Polish forests.
But they can’t do it alone. They need your help, whether you’re in Poland or elsewhere in Europe. So please mobilize all your Polish friends to vote in these crucial elections. We’re all in this together, and together, we can make a real change”.
Who will the diaspora vote for?
An estimated 5 million Poles currently live abroad and, based on the precedent of the 2019 parliamentary election, they historically vote for the opposition to Law and Justice – in this case, giving Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition party (KO) some hope for Sunday.
The right-wing, populist Law and Justice party has been in power since 2015. During their years in government, they have been accused of politicizing the judiciary, tightening their control on national media, and limiting abortion access to the point of a near-total ban.
While in 2019 Law and Justice won 43.6% of the vote, the party is now several percentage points below that level of success at 38% as of 9 September, according to a recent POLITICO poll.
