PO wins landslide victory in European Parliament elections

2009-06-12

The ruling Civic Platform (PO) party has confidently won European Parliament elections in Poland, held on 7 June. It received more than 44% of the popular vote and won 25 seats out of the 50 that were up for grabs. The main opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party was 17 points behind and will get 15 MEPs. Just two other political groupings cleared the 5% threshold needed to win seats in the European Parliament: the Democratic Left Alliance/Labour Union (SLD-UP), which received just over 12% of the vote, giving it seven seats; and the Polish Peasants’ Party (PSL), the junior coalition partner, which will have three MEPs after gaining 7% of the votes cast.
Voter turnout was 24.53%, low by European standards but higher than in 2004, when Poles first elected their MEPs.
Both PO and PSL will join the centre-right European People’s Party (EPL), which will be by far the largest grouping in the new European Parliament after its member parties won elections in most EU countries (the EPL will have 264 seats in the 736-seat new parliament). SLD-UP will join the Socialists (183). PiS, meanwhile, is to form a new group together with Britain’s Conservatives and ODS, the ruling party in the Czech Republic (among others), to be called European Conservatives.
PO’s Jerzy Buzek is one of the front-runners to become the new European Parliament president.