Poland’s polarised election campaign heats up ahead of crucial vote – live | Poland

Jon Henley

Poland’s elections on 15 October could give the ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party an unprecedented third term in office, or hand its longstanding opposition the chance to reverse what critics describe as eight years of democratic backsliding.

Another possibility is that they end in stalemate, with neither party able to form a coalition. Whatever happens, Poland’s politics will remain deeply polarised after a ballot that – amid war in Ukraine and a bitter dispute with the EU – is of more than usual interest abroad.

Read the full explainer ahead of Sunday’s vote.

A number of high-profile opposition Polish politicians have criticised Law and Justice after the resignation of two senior military figures this week, arguing that the move reflects poorly on the ruling party’s leadership.

Michał Szczerba, a member of the Polish parliament from the opposition Civic Platform, said that the environment was becoming more dangerous, despite Law and Justice’s campaign promise of a safe Poland. The resignation did not look serious for allies, he added.

Law and Justice focuses campaign on migration

Shaun Walker

The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has drawn from the classic rightwing populist playbook and have focused its campaign on migration.

The party has even launched a referendum on the same day to mobilise its base to go and vote – and two of the four leading questions on the referendum are about migration.

The evening news frequently features horror stories from Lampedusa and elsewhere in Europe.

In last night’s debate, the prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, said: “We will protect Poles from rapes, from cars being set on fire like in Stockholm. PiS is a guarantee of security.”

The PiS claim about keeping Poles safe is partly based around a wall it constructed at the border with Belarus last year to keep refugees and migrants out. But behind the newsreels of a safe, secure Poland is a story of a humanitarian crisis. The Guardian’s Shaun Walker spent several days reporting this long story from the border published last week.

Shaun Walker

Opposition candidate Donald Tusk was visibly nervous during last night’s debate and did not perform particularly well.

But with the opposition’s chances of forming a workable coalition reliant on the Third Way coalition of Szymon Hołownia passing the 8% threshold – a mark they have been hovering only just above in polls – Cambridge professor Stanley Bill makes the point that the debate could be a net gain for the opposition.

Hołownia is being widely credited with the best performance in the televised debate.

Two senior Polish military figures have abruptly resigned, days ahead of the country’s election.

Gen Rajmund Andrzejczak, chief of the general staff of the Polish armed forces, and Gen Tomasz Piotrowski, have both submitted their resignations, Rzeczpospolita reported.

A feminist activist and electoral candidate who was dropped by Donald Tusk’s opposition alliance in Poland after she expressed support for abortion access after 12 weeks of pregnancy has said her trust in the veteran liberal conservative to fight for women’s rights is “limited”.

Jana Shostak, a 30-year-old performance artist, has a strong record of advocacy on behalf of Belarusian democracy, refugees and women’s rights. When she announced she was running for parliament in the election on 15 October – joining the coalition of the leading opposition party, Civic Platform (PO) – Poland’s progressives were excited.

Shostak, who has joint Polish and Belarusian citizenship, seemed to offer an antidote to the tired and cautiously moderate image of the centre-right PO, which has been trying to wrangle power from the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) for the last eight years. She planned to run for election as a member of the Green party, a junior centre-left partner in the opposition coalition.

But, little over a month after her announcement, she was dropped by the coalition, after a video interview in which she appeared to express support for abortion access in second and third trimester. Without making any specific policy recommendations, when asked if women should have the choice to end their pregnancy at any point, she said: “Yes.”

In the run-up to next month’s election, Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister and former president of the European Council, sought the support of Poland’s feminists. He made a commitment to gender parity among his coalition’s parliamentary candidates and promised that, if elected as prime minister, he would legalise abortion on request up to 12 weeks of pregnancy.

But in recent months Tusk has been making conciliatory gestures to conservative voters, which Shostak and others have described as “populist and xenophobic”.

Read the full story here.

Poland’s TV’s ‘propaganda’ under scrutiny as bitterly polarised election looms

Shaun Walker

Poland is under attack from both east and west. Foes in Berlin and Moscow, using their proxy Donald Tusk, plan to destabilise the country, overrun it with uncontrolled migration and subjugate Polish politics to external influence.

That, at least, would be the view of someone who received all their news from Poland’s public television channel, TVP, where correspondents and anchors on the nightly news programme parrot government talking points and warn of the dangerous goals of the political opposition.

“Brussels’ attacks on Poland are inspired by the opposition,” said a news anchor last week, before cutting to a story claiming Germany is financing NGOs helping to bring illegal immigrants to Europe and other stories about Tusk’s nefarious doings during his previous term as prime minister.

Anchors speak daily about an “invasion” of Europe by migrants, and the government’s brave measures to stop it. Scandals involving ministers are ignored.

With Poland in the final week of campaigning before a crucial parliamentary election, the role of public television in the bitterly polarising campaign is under scrutiny.

Read the full article here.

“Neither of the two big headliners of yesterday’s blatantly biased debate – prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki from PiS and Civic Coalition leader Donald Tusk – performed well,” Jakub Jaraczewski, a research coordinator at Democracy Reporting International, told the Guardian this morning.

“It was the politicians from three smaller committees vying for the third place in the elections that stole the show: Szymon Hołownia, the co-leader of the centrist-agrarian coalition Third Way, Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus representing The Left, and Krzysztof Bosak from the far-right libertarian party Konfederacja.

“At stake on Sunday’s vote is nothing less than the future course of Poland within the European Union,” Jaraczewski said.

“If PiS manages to form a majority and rule for the third term, Poland will likely continue to erode its own rule of law and thus escalate the conflict with Brussels over judicial independence and fundamental rights,” he said.

“If the opposition prevails and builds a broad coalition ranging from centre-right to far-left,” he added, “a new government will face the daunting task of repairing the rule of law and restoring the country’s standing in the EU.”

Good morning and welcome back to the Europe live blog.

Today we will be looking ahead to Poland’s parliamentary election, scheduled for this Sunday.

The election is garnering significant attention both within Poland and beyond, as the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party tries to retain power.

It is facing an opposition coalition led by the former Polish prime minister and ex-president of the European Council Donald Tusk. But the outcome may yet be decided by how smaller parties perform.

Send comments and tips to lili.bayer@theguardian.com