No left-wing pact in local elections

Janusz Palikot, leader of the Your Movement party, following a meeting of the party's board on Thursday evening. Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka

Following a meeting of the board of Your Movement on Thursday evening, Palikot claimed that the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), would neither accept his party's name as part of the coalition list's title, nor the neutral name of The Left Together (Lewica Razem).

SLD leader Leszek Miller had initially proposed a shared electoral list under the name of SLD-The Left Together (SLD-Lewica Razem).

“The Democratic Left Alliance insists on a solution that is unacceptable for us, one that would in fact mean starting on an SLD list,” Palikot said.

Meanwhile, Krzysztof Gawkowski, secretary general of SLD told Polsat News that the SLD list will remain open to members of Palikot's party until the end of September, predicting that they would “come over to SLD.”

A recent opinion poll (12 August) by the Homo Homini institute indicated that support for Your Movement is flagging, while SLD is on the rise.

The poll, which tested how Poles would vote in a general election, found that Palikot's Movement, which currently has 34 MPs compared to SLD's 26, would only garner 2 percent of the vote, failing to cross the 5 percent needed to remain in parliament. SLD would win 11 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, conservative opposition party Law and Justice would take 33 percent, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform 24 percent. (nh)

Source: PAP/IAR