Tusk victory: another four years of political stability

Donald Tusk is set to govern Poland for another term being the first Polish Prime Minister since the collapse of the communist regime to win a second consecutive mandate following Sunday Parliamentary election, where his centre-right Civic Platform secured most of the votes.

According to the latest exit polls, his party - Civic Platform (PO) - won the election with 39.6 % of the vote while the ultra-conservative opposition party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski - Law and Justice (PiS)- received only 30.1%. The main surprise of this election was the rise of a new party, Palikot's Movement, (RP) which came in third position with 10.1% while the ruling party's current coalition partner, the rural based Polish People's Party (PSL) gained only 8.2 %. Despite the excellent showing of Palikot's Movement, Civic Platform is interested in continuing its coalition with the Polish People's Party, its coalition partner of the past four years. This would allow the ruling coalition to have a comfortable majority of 239 votes in parliament ( 212 from PO and 27 from PSL), ruling out the need for a third coalition partner which would have made things more unstable for Poland political scenario at a critical time of deepening crisis and global economic vulnerability.

The reelection of Tusk for a second term not only did cheered investors, who welcomed another four more years of a pro-market government, but also signaled how democracy is consolidating in Poland. In the last four years of the PO-PSL coalition, Poland has in fact experienced a prolonged period of political and economic stability. The government has successfully steered the country through the global crisis without dipping into recession. As in the past, Poland next PO-Government is likely to offer the Country another four years of political stability. PO has already pledged more reforms aimed at slashing the soaring levels of public debt and budget deficit. It remains to be seen however, whether the new Tusk government will be able to deliver, carrying out further reforms and completing the programme from its first term in office as promised during the electoral campaign or whether emboldened by a new parliamentary majority it will shy away from far reaching and unpopular reforms such during the first term.