The economy's riding high, PiS is succeeding domestically with their anti-LGBT+ culture crusade, so they've called their general elections for Sejm and Senate for Sunday, October 13.
Like the other V4 nations, Poland has been moving away from Western-style liberal democracy in recent years thanks to a commanding PiS majority in the Sejm. Some have likened their actions in government as similar to those in Hungary, restricting the rights of the press, changing the nation's legal system and packing courts with their own appointees and following the overall illiberal path that has been the trend in Eastern Europe in recent years. This election is considered one of the most important since the fall of Communism, and so far, PiS is polling at an astonishing 43-45%, the highest a party has ever gotten in the post-1991 years. This has largely been due to their role as champions of Polish nationalism and their perceived culture war with Western Europe. If this trend continues, they're expected to widen their majority and could potentially gain enough seats to amend the constitution.
Meanwhile, their erstwhile rivals, PO, are gathering smaller parties to try to create a wall that could block PiS, while Robert Biedroń, former mayor of Slupsk, Pomerania, and first LGBT poseł(Polish term for MP that literally translates to "Envoy"...and by the way, a crossed "L" makes a "W" sound for those who don't know), has started Wiosna, a western social democratic party, which did fairly well until they underperformed in the EU elections back in May. This was to try to bring some type of left-wing ideas into the Sejm since no left or centre-left parties currently have any posłowie there.
Now then, here's how the vote will go down. The Sejm has 460 members chosen in 41 multi-member constituencies. They have D'Hondt open-list PR system with a 5% threshold for individual parties and an 8% threshold for party coalitions. They will also be voting for 100 senators via single-member FPTP districts.
Now to meet the most likely parties(or current parties)themselves.
Law and Justice(PiS) led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, current PM is Mateusz Morawiecki: Right Wing, National Conservative, Right Populist, Social Conservative, Polish Nationalist, Soft Eurosceptic
Civic Platform(PO) led by Grzegorz Schetyna: Centre to Centre-Right, Social Liberal, Conservative Liberal, Pro-European, Christian Democratic
Democratic Left Alliance(SLD) led by Włodzimierz Czarzasty: Centre-Left, Social Democratic, Pro-European
Wiosna(Spring) led by Robert Biedroń(currently MEP, not likely to be in Sejm): Centre-Left to Left, Social Democratic, Progressive, Feminist, Green Policy, Pro-European, Anti-Clericalist
Polish People's Party(PSL) led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz: Centre to Centre-Right, Agrarian, Environmentalist, Pro-European, Conservative, Christian Democratic
Kukiz' 15 led by Paweł Kukiz: Right Wing, Soft Eurosceptic, Direct Democratic, Right Populist, Anti-Establishment, National Conservative
And there are other parties like .Nowoczesna(Modern), Lewica Razem(Left Together), and KORWiN(Liberty), but none of them are polling above the threshold.
So, who do you stand with, NSG?
I'm standing with Wiosna, but if I lived somewhere where they weren't viable(which is a lot of the country to be honest) I'd vote for PO, anything to stop Kaczynski from creating Russia in miniature.
