The PiS (Law and Justice) party has governed Poland with an absolute majority since 2015 and was even the first across the finish line in the 2014 European elections. Forecasts predict that it will once again be the strongest force in 2019, edging out the European five-party coalition.
As a national-conservative force, the PiS never tires of stressing the need for national states to have the say in the EU. At the latest since the judicial reforms - which systematically subordinate the judiciary to the government and parliament - were pushed through, the government in Warsaw has been seriously at odds with Brussels. Late in 2017 the EU Commission responded by triggering the Article 7 procedure on breaches of the rule of law.
Nevertheless, the PiS has struck an inhabitually euro-friendly tone in the campaign, praising “Poland, the Heart of Europe”. Because as much as Brussels is a bugbear in Warsaw, almost no one in Poland seriously wants to leave the EU. In its campaigning the PiS has also been keen to avoid signs that it is steering for a Polexit. Our correspondent in Warsaw, Olivia Kortas, reports on the Polish campaign.
