Polish left to unite for general election
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
19.07.2015 11:32
Leszek Miller, head of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), has announced that his party will form a coalition with the liberal Your Movement party and the Greens ahead of the 25 October general election.
From left: SLD MEP Andrzej Szejna, leader of SLD Leszek Miller, SLD MEPJoanna Senyszyn, MPs Dariusz Joński, Jerzy Wenderlich, Włodzimierz Czarzasty. PAP/Tomasz Gzell
Miller revealed the initiative at a press conference following Saturday's session of SLD's National Council.
“Regardless of various matters and various occurences, we believe that the Polish right has to be faced up to,” he said.
“And this can be done in a much more energetic and convincing manner if we go forward in the form of a coalition of various political parties and players,” he added.
A recent opinion poll carried out by the Estymator Institute for the Newsweek Polska weekly indicated that Miller's party's would only just cross the 5 percent threshold needed to enter Poland's lower house of parliament. Both Your Movement and the Greens would fail to do so.
Coalitions need 8 percent to enter parliament.
“We want to achieve much more than 8 percent, and we deeply believe that the formula of a united left will help us do this,” Miller said.
The Estymator poll found that conservative the opposition grouping of Law and Justice, together with United Poland and Poland Together, would take 43 percent, while Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz's party Civic Platform would manage 28 percent.
Janusz Palikot, head of the liberal Your Movement party, has said that the left-wing alliance is “the only sensible solution.”
He added that he will back the name 'The United Left' for the grouping, although no final decision has been made. (nh)
Source: PAP