Poland’s Ruling Party Struggles for Traction as Extreme-right Surges

Poland's commitment to Ukraine may weaken if the extreme right joins the next government

5 July 2023

Adam Jasser

Deputy Managing Editor

With the ruling party feeling pressure from both the re-emerging centre and a rebranded extreme-right, Poland’s de facto leader Jarosław Kaczyński will attempt to navigate a third consecutive victory by scapegoating migrants and following – for domestic purposes – well-trodden Russian disinformation narratives.

The key political mantra of Poland’s supreme party leader Jarosław Kaczyński, apart from regular Germany-bashing, has been never to allow a significant rival to emerge on the right of his ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party.

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For almost eight years of holding power, he managed to do just that by moving his once centre-right grouping more and more firmly into nationalist, socially conservative, authoritarian and Eurosceptic positions espoused by many radical-right parties in Europe and appealing to a considerable segment of the Polish electorate.

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Adam Jasser

Deputy Managing Editor

Since 2021, Adam has co-hosted a foreign policy podcast “About the World at Onet” for Poland’s leading web portal onet.pl. He has worked as a business and policy consultant, including with the World Bank on competition, privatisation and regulatory reforms in transition economies. In 2014-16, Adam was head of the Polish competition authority. He served as Secretary of State in the Chancellery of Prime Minister Donald Tusk in 2010-14. He was Secretary of the PM’s Economic Council and oversaw the analytical and policy impact assessment department. Before joining the government, Adam was Programme Director at Warsaw-based think-tank demosEuropa – Centre for European Strategy. Earlier, he spent almost 20 years at Reuters news agency, in roles stretching from translator and head of economic reporting in Warsaw, to bureau chief in Frankfurt and regional editor for central Europe, Balkans and Turkey.

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