The Polish right defeats a strange alliance of centrists, leftists and post-communists

One of the most striking data of the European elections held last Sunday comes from Poland, where a strange alliance of the opposition was formed against the ruling party.

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The Polish partners of the European People's Party, allied with the left

The conservatives of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS, Law and Justice), currently in government in Poland and very close to the Spaniards of Vox (they will surely coincide in the Group of European Conservatives and Reformists), came to the elections with their own acronyms and won with 45.56% of the votes. The second most voted candidacy was the Koalicja Europejska (KE, European Coalition). It is, without a doubt, one of the most heterogeneous alliances that have been seen in Poland. The main partners of the KE were the following parties:

• Platforma Obywatelska (PO, Civic Platform). Centrist, is the main Polish partner of the European People's Party (EPP), which also belongs to the Popular Party of Spain.
• Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe (PSL, Polish Popular Party). An agrarian center-right party, is also a member of the EPP.
• Nowoczesna (Modern). A liberal-progressive party, member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE). It has an ideological line similar to its Spanish partners Ciudadanos.
• Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej (SLD, Alliance of the Democratic Left). A socialist party, partially heir of the Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza (PUWP, Polish Unified Workers Party), the only party of the communist dictatorship that disappeared in 1989. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists.
• Partia Zieloni (PZ, Green Party). An far left ecologist party.

To this we must add other small center-left parties, in addition to two openly opposed partners: the Polskich Rodzin League (League of Polish Families, once a party of the Catholic right, supported by Radio Maria and opposed to the EU years ago, which it has ended up moving towards the center and embracing the EU) and the Inicjatywa Feministyczna (IF, Feminist Initiative, a leftist party that supports the legalization of abortion in Poland).

Thanks to this strange alliance, a former leader of the communist dictatorship will be in Brussels

I do not know what intentions the founders of the KE had when grouping such heterogeneous parties. Perhaps it responded to a call from the Brussels elite to defeat the wayward and politically incorrect Polish government, which does not bend to the EU's dictates on immigration? So far, what the Polish EPP partners have achieved is that the left, which has no representation in the Polish Parliament, has it in the European Parliament. Many Poles will be stunned today to see, in particular, that one of the new MEPs in their country is Leszek Miller, of the SLD and former leader of the PUWP, the only party of the disappeared communist dictatorship in 1989. Miller is a controversial figure in Poland. Among his most controversial statements are his praise of the last communist dictator, General Jaruzelski, on his death in May 2014.

Razem, the Polish version of Podemos, remains outside the European Parliament

In the 2014 European elections, going separately, the parties that formed the KE won 28 seats; in 2019, going in coalition, he has achieved 22 seats. On the contrary, the PiS goes from 19 to 27 seats. In addition, the party Wiosna (Spring), member of the Party of European Socialists, has achieved 3 seats. Polarization of the vote around the two big candidates (PiS and KE) hurt small right-wing groups, such as the coalition Konfederacja (Confederation) and Kukiz'15, which are left without representation. The far left coalition formed by Razem, the Polish version of the Spanish Podemos party, also left out of the European Parliament: it only won 1.24% of the vote.