Poland's main opposition collapses over far-right slide
A power struggle within Poland's main opposition force has come to a head. But a move to expel former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki may greatly
A power struggle within Poland's main opposition force has come to a head. But a move to expel former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki may greatly weaken the right-wing party's popularity. "Over 30 delegates of our group have effectively forfeited their membership," Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the head of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, said on Friday. He's accusing Poland's former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, as well as dozens of his followers, of attempting to split the party. "We couldn't accept that," Kaczynski continued. "It's all done." For their part, the rebels alleged they have not resigned but been "expelled." A three-hour "last chance" talk between Kaczynski and Morawiecki ended on Thursday without results. "We were looking for understanding, but couldn't accept subjugation," Piotr Mueller, an EU delegate close to Morawiecki, later said about the talks on X. The ultimatum that Kacynski had placed on rebel party members ended at midnight. By then, they were expected to deliver a written declaration that they would refrain from activities in the Rozwoj Plus (Development Plus) association led by Morawiecki. In Kaczynski's view, the breakaway association has undermined his party's primacy. "I'm not signing any loyalty pledge," Morawiecki told the Polish television station TVN. "That's something one might have required of me in the 1980s," he added, alluding to his persecution for his father's prominent opposition to the regime at the time. Poland swings back to the right after presidential vote To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video For a quarter of a century, Kaczynski and his PiS party have dominated the right wing of Poland's party landscape.
Any attempt to establish a new, more radical right was successfully quashed. Since 2001, PiS has been in power twice, from 2005-2007 and again from 2015-2023, and has occupied the office of state president with Kaczynski's twin brother, Lech, then Andrzej Duda and — since mid-2025 — Karol Nawrocki. Greatest crisis since party's founding Just over a year before the next parliamentary election, the party is facing its greatest crisis since it got its start in 2001. By now, two parties have established themselves to the right of PiS: the far-right nationalist and libertarian alliance Confederation Liberty and Independence (KWIN), and the extreme right-wing, ultranationalist, traditionalist Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP). Taken together, they enjoy more support in the polls than the PiS party alone. Kaczynski's party has lost many voters to these two radical groups. To win them back, Kaczynski has pushed his party ever further to the right. In March, he nominated Przemyslaw Czarnek, the ultraconservative, ultra-Catholic former minister of education and science, as the party's lead candidate for the 2027 parliamentary election. Morawiecki and his followers have called the move a fundamental mistake. Two lungs or one fist? Czarnek is trying to outflank the two confederation parties from the right with verbal attacks against the EU and Ukraine. In the recent Polish-Ukrainian dispute over unresolved historical issues, Czarnek called for all military aid to Ukraine to be halted until Kyiv changed its position. Supporters of this hard line have said the party should act "like a fist." Morawiecki has dismissed Kaczynski's ultimatum to assure adherence to the PiS party line: 'I'm not signing any loyalty pledge' Image: Klaudia Radecka/IMAGO Morawiecki responded to his party's shift to the right by launching the political association Development Plus.
The BriefWire