Opposition leader Donald Tusk could return as Polish prime minister, according to two exit polls after Sunday’s parliamentary election that put the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) ahead but without enough votes to govern alone or with a far right party.
PiS and its leader Jarosław Kaczyński were expected to win 36.6 per cent of the vote, with 31 per cent for Tusk’s Civic Platform. Together with two other parties, Civic Platform is on track to secure 248 of the 460 seats in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s parliament, according to the latest Ipsos exit poll released on Monday morning, which confirmed the same share of seats for Tusk’s party as an initial exit poll on Sunday night.
Tusk pledged during the campaign to reposition Warsaw on a firm pro-European path, restore the independence of judges and unlock billions of euros of EU funding withheld by the European Commission in a spat with the PiS government over judicial reforms.