Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, on Thursday gave an interview to Catholic broadcaster TV Trwam.
Kaczyński, who serves as deputy prime minister, said in the interview that his Law and Justice party was "governing in dangerous times," and "we have understood these dangerous times,” he added, referring to Russia's war in neighbouring Ukraine and “another war in Israel,” state news agency PAP reported.
The conservative leader told TV Trwam that Poland needed ”a very strong army“ to deter any potential attacks, declaring that the government "has almost doubled” the number of troops and was building “the strongest army in Europe.”
Meanwhile, Donald Tusk, the leader of the main opposition grouping, the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), told supporters that the ruling Law and Justice party sought to “take Poland out of the European Union,” the PAP news agency reported.
Tusk, a former prime minister and European Council president, told a rally in the southern city of Katowice that “a vote for Law and Justice is a vote for Poland’s exit from the EU.”
The opposition leader said: “I want everyone in Poland to hear and realise that on October 15 we’ll also decide whether Poland will be in the EU or outside the EU.”
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, one of the leaders of the centre-right Third Way alliance, said his grouping was increasingly attacked by rival parties “because we are surging in the polls,” the PAP news agency reported.
Meeting with voters in the southern city of Kraków, Kosiniak-Kamysz said the Third Way aimed “to put an end to partisan fighting” and "focus on policy, including wide-ranging improvement of the education system" and fostering entrepreneurship.
Meanwhile, Krzysztof Gawkowski, a senior lawmaker with the New Left, said that his grouping was determined to “unseat Law and Justice” and help create a “different Poland,” the PAP news agency reported.
During an end-of-campaign meeting in the northern city of Bydgoszcz, Gawkowski said he believed that “on Monday we’ll wake up in a different reality,” in a “Poland that rises to the challenges of the future.”
Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation, reiterated that after the elections his grouping “will not form a coalition government with Law and Justice,” and “will not ally with the Civic Coalition, the Third Way or the leftists, either.”
Speaking in an interview with the Business Insider website, Bosak declared: “The Confederation will be independent, free of any arrangements and will vote in favour of specific [government] bills, as well as submitting our own bills.”
Grzegorz Wysocki, a member of the Non-Partisan Local Government Activists grouping, said Poland’s main parties were “playing with fire” by making national security and defence into a campaign issue, the wnp.pl website reported.
Speaking to the media in Warsaw on Thursday, Wysocki said that "amid the war in Ukraine, the conflict in Israel, and hybrid warfare on the Belarusian border, we must take all steps to ensure that our country’s defence strategy is shared by all political forces.”
Poland to elect new parliament on October 15
Poles will head to the ballot box to vote in parliamentary elections on Sunday. They will elect 460 MPs and 100 senators for a four-year term.
Seeking a third term in power, the governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party appears to be running ahead of an opposition divided into separate blocs.
But if they win the election, the governing conservatives may not be able to form a majority in parliament on their own, according to the latest polls.
Poles to vote in referendum
In August, Poland's lawmakers approved a plan to combine parliamentary elections with a nationwide referendum asking Poles whether their country should accept migrants from the Middle East and Africa, whether state companies can be sold to foreign buyers, whether the retirement age should be increased, and whether a wall on Poland's border with Belarus should be dismantled.
The ruling conservatives have encouraged people to cast their ballots in the referendum, while the opposition has asked voters to boycott it, saying the referendum questions are worded in a biased way and contain misleading information designed to boost support for the government.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, Business Insider, wnp.pl