Ongoing farmers' protests are influencing the outcome of local elections in Poland and could contribute to the outcome of June's European elections, according to politicians and election data.
Local elections held in Poland on Sunday saw the PiS (ECR) party win the top spot in local parliaments with 33.7% of the vote, followed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition (KO, EPP/S&D/Green Party). won with 31.9 points. %.
Mr Tusk's coalition partners, the Third Way (Renew/EPP) and the New Left (S&D), scored less than 20%, ranking third and fourth respectively.
Meanwhile, Tusk's alliance captured a number of major cities, including Warsaw and Gdańsk, with KO candidates Rafał Trzaskowski and Aleksandra Drukiewicz winning in the first round.
PiS's results may have been influenced by farmers' protests across the country, New Left lawmaker and former prime minister Marek Belka told Euractiv.pl on Monday.
“Protests encouraged rural voters to go to the polls, and as a result PiS performed very well in rural areas,” Belka explained.
This is backed up by data showing that in rural areas PiS won 43% of the vote, compared to KO with 20% and Third Lord with just 16%.
EU trade policy responsibilities
Nationwide farmers' protests echo similar demonstrations in other EU countries, with Polish farmers saying the European Green Deal CAP, which they believe is too restrictive and will hit Polish agriculture hard I am against the part.
The second, more local reason for the protests is that Brussels' decision to liberalize agricultural trade with Ukraine in 2022 as part of the Autonomous Trade Measures (ATM) has resulted in Ukrainian agricultural products flooding the Polish market. It's about being.
This reduced the price and demand for domestically produced products in Poland, resulting in huge losses for farmers.
Earlier this year, the European Commission announced that the ATM would be extended for another year as a “continuation of the EU's unwavering support for the Ukrainian economy,” which caused further dissatisfaction among Polish farmers.
“If the commission had approached ATMs differently, voters' attitudes might have been different,” Belka said.
Poland's agricultural sector supports PiS over the current ruling party, with more than 57% of farmers voting for PiS on Sunday, data from Ipsos pollster showed.
In contrast, the Third Way received only 15% of the peasant vote and ranked second. Citizens United's score was even lower, at nearly 10%.
This does not mean that the majority of farmers actually support PiS. Most people abstained from voting because they were disappointed with the PiS government that ruled Poland until December last year and criticized the government's inaction on the Ukraine import crisis.
The current situation regarding agriculture in Poland could also have an impact on the European elections in June, as the Green Deal and ATMs fall under EU jurisdiction and farmers have a major influence on election results in Poland. .
If the situation regarding imports from Ukraine is not resolved by then, the peasant vote could increase the results for PiS and, by extension, the ECR party, which is consistent with expectations that the new European Parliament will move to the right.
(Aleksandra Krzysztošek | Euractiv.pl)