HERE'S SOME GOOD NEWS

With the doom and gloom reported here the past two days, here is good news - or at least potentially good news. The results of the elections today in Poland show that the theocratic-fasicst Law and Justice Party may be replaced by a pro-democracy coalition government.

From the Washington Post tonight:

Poland’s political opposition ecstatically declared victory Sunday in the country’s most pivotal election since the fall of the Berlin Wall, after an exit poll suggested that while the ruling hard-right party had placed first, the opposition had a far clearer path to a governing coalition.

“We did it! Really! … Poland has won, democracy has won. We have removed them from power!” opposition leader Donald Tusk — a former prime minister and head of the European Council — told his supporters Sunday.

An opposition victory would mean a dramatic shift for Poland, where the Law and Justice party has held power for the past eight years, making it one of the most successful populist parties in Europe — and a model of the rollback of democratic norms. The Polish government exerted control over the courts and the media, backed severe restrictions on abortion, targeted LBGTQ+ rights, and undermined the bonds of the European Union.

If the exit poll holds true, observers say, the election result would have major implications for Polish democracy, European unity and the West’s effort to confront Russian aggression. But exit polls, while generally considered reliable in Poland, can also be flawed, as recently seen in neighboring Slovakia.

Law and Justice also claimed victory Sunday, and its allies could delay any transfer of power — or try to thwart it by attempting to form a minority government.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the party’s leader and the country’s deputy prime minister, seemed to acknowledge a tough road to forming a new government. “The question is whether this success will be able to be turned into another term of office,” he told supporters. “Whether we are in power or in the opposition, we will continue implementing our project and will not allow Poland to be betrayed,” he said.

The exit poll suggested an opposition victory would be built on a coalition of younger voters, highly educated urban dwellers and Poles living in the industrialized western half of the country, which has deeper historical ties to the rest of Europe.

For advocates of democracy in the E.U., such a result would amount to an early Christmas gift — one fortifying the bloc’s position as a defender of the rule of law at a time when far-right parties have made substantial inroads elsewhere on the continent.

The Ipsos Mori poll projected that Law and Justice had won 36.8 percent of the vote. The opposition Civic Platform was projected to have gotten 31.6 percent. But, pivotally, two political forces seen as potential allies in a new “democratic” coalition collectively had garnered another 21.6 percent. A fourth political force — the Confederation party, seen as even further to the right than Law and Justice — was polling well below expectations at 6.2 percent.

Poland’s highly charged campaign saw some of the largest rallies on Warsaw’s streets since the restoration of democracy three decades ago, and the exit poll suggested a record-high turnout of 73 percent.

The final results are expected Monday or Tuesday and hinge on official tallies.

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