November 10,  2023

Poland’s opposition parties have signed a coalition deal, paving the way for them to form a new government after winning the majority of votes in elections last month. But they will have to wait.

Donald Tusk, the opposition’s candidate for prime minister, announced on Friday that a deal had been reached. The group includes various ideologies, but united around strengthening Poland’s ties to the European Union.

“We are ready to take responsibility for Poland in the coming years,” Tusk, a former prime minister and head of the liberal Civic Coalition (KO) told reporters.

The parties, which include Civic Coalition, the economically liberal Third Way, and the left-leaning New Left, garnered a collective majority of votes in the October 15 election.

But President Andrzej Duda has given the governing nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which took more votes than any single party in the elections, the first shot at forming a government.

Oct. 17, 2023, 4:56 AM ETBy VANESSA GERA and MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Three opposition parties that vowed to restore democratic standards in Poland together won over 54% of the votes in the nation's weekend parliamentary election, putting them in a position to take power, according to a complete ballot count reported Tuesday.

The conservative Law and Justice party, which has governed the country for eight turbulent years, won slightly over 35% of the votes, making it the single party with the most votes. But the party and its leader Jarosław Kaczyński lost their majority in parliament and appeared to have no way to hold onto power.

The official ballot announced by the National Electoral Commission aligns closely with an exit poll released after voting ended Sunday.

Turnout was nearly 75%, a record that surpassed the 63% turnout of 1989, a vote that triggered the collapse of the oppressive Soviet-backed communist system.

Law and Justice had been taking the country on an illiberal path, taking control of courts in a manner that violated the country's constitution. The party politicized state institutions, including taxpayer-funded public media which it used as a crude propaganda tool to praise itself and vilify opponents.

The result was a huge victory for Donald Tusk, the head of the largest opposition group, Civic Coalition. He appeared likely to return to his past role as Polish prime minister, a job he held from 2007-14. He also served as the European Council president, a top job in the bloc, from 2014-19.

Tusk's success is all the more remarkable given that state media went into overdrive to portray him as a stooge of Germany and Russia. That portrayal, which appeared baseless, also won him much sympathy.

The result was a huge relief for Poles concerned about the country’s international isolation at a time of war across the border in Ukraine and the constant bickering with the European Union. Many feared it could cause the country's eventual ejection from the 27-member bloc.

The LGBTQ+ community also suffered a smear campaign in recent years, being portrayed as a threat to the nation by the conservative ruling party. Liberals were also depicted as disloyal to the country. Over the years, massive protests led by women rocked the country as the party restricted the abortion law to prevent the termination of pregnancies with fetal abnormalities.

Young people and women were among those who voted in droves to get rid of the Law and Justice party, which won in 2015 vowing to fight corruption and help even out economic inequalities. While its social spending did help many Polish pensioners and families, the party has increasingly faced allegations of corruption.

The National Electoral Commission said that Law and Justice won slightly over 35% of the votes, and the far-right Confederation, a possible ally, about 7%.

Three opposition groups won a collective of 53.7%, enough for a comfortable majority in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, or Sejm; The Civic Coalition garnered 30.7% of the vote while the centrist Third Way got 14.4% and the New Left about 8.6%.

The three ran on separate tickets so they are not formally part of the same coalition, but all promised to cooperate to restore the rule of law.

The opposition, which had a razor-thin majority in the outgoing Senate, has now obtained an overwhelming majority of 66 out of 100 seats in that upper chamber. The Senate is far less powerful than the Sejm, but still has some limited influence over the legislative process. Law and Justice will only have 34 seats.

Although the voting is over, it might still take weeks for a new government to be in place.

President Andrzej Duda, an ally of Law and Justice, must call for the first session of the new parliament within 30 days of election day and appoint a prime minister to form a government.

In the meantime, the current government will remain in a caretaker role.

Oct. 16, 2023, 7:41 AM ETBy VANESSA GERA and MONIKA SCISLOWSKA Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The majority of voters in Poland's general election supported opposition parties that promised to reverse democratic backsliding and repair the nation's relationship with allies, including the European Union and Ukraine, according to projections Monday.

After a bitter and emotional campaign, turnout was projected at almost 73%, the highest level in the country's 34 years of democracy and surpassing the 63% who turned out in the historic 1989 vote that toppled communism. In the city of Wroclaw, the lines were so long that voting continued through the night until nearly 3 a.m.

A so-called late exit poll by Ipsos suggested that voters had grown tired of the governing nationalist Law and Justice party after eight years of divisive policies that led to frequent street protests, bitter divisions within families and billions of euros (dollars) in funding held up by the EU over rule of law violations.

Poland's currency, the zloty, strengthened against the dollar and the euro on news of the opposition gains.

The outcome could also affect ties with neighboring Ukraine, which Poland has supported in the war against Russia's aggression. The good relations soured in September over Ukraine grain entering and affecting Poland's market.

The Ipsos poll showed that three centrist opposition parties that campaigned on a promise to reverse the illiberal drift of the government had together secured around 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, or Sejm, a clear majority.  Read more...

Oct. 16, 2023, 10:01 AM ET

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) — A populist former prime minister of Slovakia who plans to end the country’s military support for Ukraine signed on Monday a coalition agreement with the leaders of two other parties to form a new government.

Robert Fico and his leftist Smer, or Direction, won the Sept 30 parliamentary election with 22.9% of the vote, taking 42 seats in the 150-seat legislature. He needed to find coalition partners to govern with a majority.

Fico inked a deal with Peter Pellegrini, the head of the left-wing Hlas, or Voice, party, which placed third in the election and has 27 seats, and the ultra-nationalist and pro-Russia Slovak National Party, which has 10 lawmakers in the new parliament.

Pellegrini was previously a senior member of Fico's party but broke away to form Hlas after the scandal-tainted Smer lost the 2020 election. Their reunion was key to Fico’s ability to form a government.

The three parties agreed last week that Fico’s party will appoint the prime minister and have six other ministers, opening the way for Fico to serve as Slovakia’s head of government for the fourth time.

Hlas will get to name the parliamentary speaker and seven Cabinet ministers, while the Slovak National Party will have three ministers.

Fico said the three parties still have to nominate their ministers before he delivers the list to President Zuzana Caputova, whose role it is to swear in the new government.

Fico didn’t say when that might happen but repeated he hoped to represent Slovakia at the next European Union leaders' summit, scheduled for late next week.

Fico campaigned on a pro-Russian and anti-American message. He has vowed to withdraw Slovakia’s military support for Ukraine, and his victory could further strain the fragile unity in the European Union and NATO.

He previously said he wants Slovakia to remain a member of the EU and NATO but with “full respect” for his country’s sovereignty.

Smer will have the posts of the foreign, justice, defense and finance ministers, among others.

Fico said Monday the foreign ministry “won’t speak for foreign interests.”

Hlas will be in charge of the interior, economy and education ministries while the Slovak National Party will get the culture and environment ministers.

Fico’s critics worry that his return to power could lead Slovakia to abandon its course in other ways, following the path of Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and to a lesser extent of Poland under the Law and Justice party.

Oct. 15, 2023, 8:02 AM ET | By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA and VANESSA GERA Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland is holding a high-stakes election on Sunday that has energized many voters, with the ruling conservative nationalist party pitted against opposition groups that accuse it of eroding the foundations of the democratic system.

The ruling party, Law and Justice, has a devoted base of supporters in the Central European nation of 38 million who appreciate its defense of Catholic traditions and its social spending on pensioners and families with children. The payments have given relief to poor people.

But support for the party has shrunk since the last election in 2019 — when it won nearly 44% of the vote — amid high inflation, allegations of cronyism and bickering with European allies. Law and Justice has been polling in recent weeks at over 30%, making it the single most popular party but still at risk of losing its majority in parliament.

In that case, some speculate that Law and Justice could need the support of the far-right Confederation party to govern, though both parties campaigned saying that was not an option.

Many Poles feel it is the most important election since 1989 when a new democracy was born after decades of communism. The health of the nation’s constitutional order, its legal stance on LGBTQ+ rights and abortion, and the foreign alliances of a country that has been a crucial ally to Ukraine are all at stake.

Polling in recent days suggested that opposition parties have a chance to deprive the governing populists of an unprecedented third term in a row.

The Civic Coalition, Third Way and New Left have campaigned on promises to repair the rule of law and ties with the EU and other allies if they manage to gain power. The final outcome of the vote could be ultimately decided by the small margins gained or lost by the smaller parties.

Civic Coalition leader Donald Tusk, the former prime minister, was cheered by a large crowd when he voted in Warsaw, with people snapping photos and wishing him good luck.

Tomasz Druzynski, an information technology specialist, voted in Warsaw saying he believes change is possible.

“I believe in it and I think this is the first chance in eight years to change something. And I hope this change will come,” Druzynski said.

The continued growth of Poland's dynamic economy is also on voters' minds.

Jan Molak, an 80-year-old supporter of the ruling party, credited it with creating a more just economic system and the development boom of recent years.

“Things are getting better and better,” he said after voting in Warsaw.

Others see economic threats in the way the party has governed and believe the high social spending has helped to fuel inflation.

There is also a high level of state ownership in the Polish economy, and the ruling party has built up a system of patronage, handing out thousands of jobs and contracts to its loyalists. Some fear over time that will cause damage.

The EU, whose funding has driven much of the economic transformation, is also withholding billions of euros (dollars) in funding to Poland over what it views as democratic erosion.

Political experts say the election will not be fully fair after eight years of governance by Law and Justice, which has eroded checks and balances to gain more control over state institutions, including the courts, public media and the electoral process itself.

Retired nurse Barbara Burs voted early in Warsaw, saying she cast her vote to change the government because she wants a better country for her children and grandchildren — a “just and undivided Poland.”

The fate of Poland's relationship with Ukraine is also at stake. The Confederation party campaigned on an anti-Ukraine message, accusing the country of lacking gratitude to Poland for its help in the war.

While Poland has been a staunch ally of Ukraine and a transit hub for Western weapons, relations chilled over the Ukrainian grain that entered Poland’s market.

Some 29 million Poles aged 18 and above are eligible to vote. They are choosing 460 members of the lower house, or Sejm, and 100 for the Senate for four-year terms.

A referendum on migration, the retirement age and other issues is being held simultaneously. Opposition groups oppose the referendum, accusing the government of seeking to tap into emotions to mobilize its electorate in the close and unpredictable race. Some called on voters to boycott the referendum.

At one polling station on the southern edge of Warsaw, people could be seen apparently declining to vote in the referendum, casting just two ballots into the assigned boxes. Voters were offered three ballots, one for the Sejm, one for the Senate and one for the referendum.

More than 31,000 voting stations across Poland are open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Over 400 voting stations will operate abroad. In a sign of the huge emotions being generated by the vote, more than 600,000 Poles registered to vote abroad.

On Friday, the Foreign Ministry fired its spokesman after he said that not all the votes cast abroad could be counted before the deadline for submitting them, which would cause them to be invalidated. The ministry said he was dismissed for spreading “false information.”

The turnout was almost 23% at 1000 GMT, five hours into the election. That was above the 18% at the same time in the 2019 vote, the National Electoral Commission said.

Exit poll results by global polling research firm Ipsos will be announced after polls close.

Individual parties need to get at least 5% of votes to win seats in parliament, coalitions need at least 8% of votes.

Oct. 12, 2023, 3:35 PM ETBy STEPHEN MCGRATH Associated Press

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romanian authorities said Thursday they found a crater from a suspected drone that may have exploded on impact on its territory near the border with Ukraine, reviving concerns about possible spillover of Russia’s war in Ukraine onto a NATO member country.

The pre-dawn discovery of the crater three kilometers (1.8 miles) west of the village of Plauru, which sits across the Danube River from the Ukrainian port of Izmail, was made after the Romanian Defense Ministry said it detected a series of drones heading toward Ukrainian river ports.

The ministry said the drone possibly exploded on impact but it was not immediately clear when or from where the drone was launched. An investigation was underway.

“Heinous Russian attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure had again serious consequences on Romania’s territory,” Romanian Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu wrote on X, the social medial platform formerly known as Twitter, adding that “new evidence of impact was found on Romania’s soil."

“We call on Russia to stop these war crimes,” she said.

Romanian authorities have confirmed drone fragments on the country's territory in recent weeks, and said the parts resembled those from drones used by the Russian army.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Associated Press on Thursday that the alliance has increased the number of aircraft monitoring Romania's skies after the drone findings. But he said there are no indications the drone incidents were "deliberate attacks on NATO’s allies, but more a consequence of the unjustified attacks on Ukraine.”

Asked if any member countries had talked of activitating official consultations under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which is the process for when members are worried about their security or territorial integrity, Stoltenberg said that “so far there hasn’t been any need for that.”

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis called the drone fragment discoveries “an absolutely unacceptable violation of the sovereign airspace of Romania, a NATO ally, with real risks to the security of Romanian citizens in the area.”

The recurring incidents over the past month have left some residents living near the border nervous that the war could spill into their country, and the village of Plauru erected prefabricated concrete shelters for residents last month.

Separately Thursday, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine said three people, including a child, were killed and two others injured overnight when drone debris fell on a private house, setting it on fire.

The drone was shot down by air defense systems but the debris “effectively destroyed” two private houses on the outskirts of the city of Belgorod, the region’s capital, and damaged several more, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

The Belgorod region has been a regular target of cross-border shelling and drone attacks. Ukrainian officials have never acknowledged responsibility for attacks on Russian territory.

In Ukraine, the office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at least 10 civilians were killed and 18 people injured over the past 24 hours, including from a missile strike on the southern city of Nikopol that hit a school, killing four and injuring two. A total of 50 homes, infrastructure facilities and power lines were damaged in the city on the Dnipro River, it said.

Ukraine's air force said it intercepted 28 of 33 Shaheed drones that Russia launched overnight across the country. Gov. Oleh Kiper of the southern Odesa region — in which Izmail is located — said Russian forces had targeted Danube port infrastructure in the region, wounding one person.

In recent weeks, Russia has carried out sustained attacks on Ukraine’s Danube ports as part of Moscow's attempt to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to export grain to world markets.

In the eastern Donetsk region, intense and incessant fighting continued near the city of Avdiivka, said Vitalii Barabash, the head of city’s military administration.

“A very tense situation for the third day. The battles around the city do not cease, and the shelling, both at positions and within the city itself, does not stop,” Barabash said on Ukrainian television.

Zelenskyy posted on Telegram that “we are holding our ground” in the city. A day earlier, the Ukrainian leader joined a meeting of more than 50 defense leaders from around the world and made a personal pitch for more military aid for his country in the face of the Russian onslaught.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Thursday pushed back against the notion that U.S. bandwidth will be exhausted by the Israel-Gaza conflict and could provide an opening for adversaries, including in Moscow.

"We’re a big enough, strong enough nation, and we’ve got global responsibilities to look after our national security interests anywhere and everywhere,” Kirby said.

The Czech Republic and Denmark on Thursday pledged to send Ukraine more Western weapons. The Czech Foreign Ministry said the package, to be sent in coming months, will include 50 infantry fighting vehicles and battle tanks, 500 heavy machine guns, 280 self-propelled howitzers, 7,000 anti-tank weapons, 60 mortar systems and anti-drone systems.

Ukraine's Interior Ministry said the death toll from last week's missile attack that leveled a cafe in the village of Hroza, in northern Kharkiv region, had risen to 59, following the identification of more victims.

The Hroza attack is one of the deadliest strikes by Russian troops in Ukraine since the invasion in February last year. Numerous bodies were found torn to pieces and it took nearly a week identify those who were killed when the Russian Iskander missile slammed into the cafe.

___

Associated Press journalists Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine; Lorne Cook in Brussels; Karel Janicek in Prague; and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

WARSAW, Oct 12, 2023 (Reuters) 

Poland and the Czech Republic will extend temporary controls on their borders with Slovakia into November as countries seek to restrict the flow of illegal migrants.

The Polish government has decided to extend the controls by 20 days to Nov. 2, the interior ministry said in a statement. Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski had said earlier that it would do so following a similar order announced by the Czech government on Wednesday evening.

The two countries, along with Austria, tightened their borders with Slovakia on Oct. 4 to guard against smugglers and a rise of illegal migrants.

"There are good results, there are clear effects," Kaminski said.

Slovakia is a transit country for migrants mostly from the Middle East and Afghanistan who are seeking to reach Germany after crossing into the European Union through Hungary from Serbia, which is not in the EU. Read more... 

Wed, October 11, 2023 at 3:22 PM EDT

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria will work together against the threat of floating mines in the Black Sea due to war between Russia and Ukraine, the Turkish Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.

The ministry gave no details of how it would address the floating mine problem. It said on social media platform X that the three countries had discussed the issue at the NATO Defence Ministers meeting in Brussels.

Last week, the British government said Russia may use sea mines to target civilian shipping in the Black Sea, including by laying them on the approach to Ukrainian ports. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of planting mines off the Ukrainian coast.

Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, plus Georgia, Poland and Ukraine previously discussed clearing floating mines in April 2022.

Turkey is also working with the United Nations, Ukraine, and Russia to revive the Black Sea grain initiative that Moscow quit earlier this year.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Rod Nickel)

Oct. 3, 2023, 8:48 AM ETBy ILLIA NOVIKOV Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania have agreed on a plan they hope will help expedite Ukrainian grain exports, officials said Tuesday, with needy countries beyond Europe potentially benefiting from speedier procedures.

The deal means that grain inspections will shift from the Ukraine-Poland border to a Lithuanian port on the Baltic Sea, according to a statement from the Ukrainian farm ministry.

The move seeks to facilitate the transit of Ukrainian exports through Polish territory, the statement said, without providing further details.

From the Lithuanian port of Klaipeda, where the inspections for pests and plant diseases will take place from Wednesday, the grain can be exported by sea around the world.

While the stated goal is to hasten Ukrainian grain exports, the agreement may also help defuse tensions over grain prices between Ukraine and Poland a time when some international support for Kyiv's efforts to throw back Russia's invasion may be fraying.

Agricultural exports have brought one of the biggest threats to European unity for Ukraine since Russia invaded.

Russia dealt a huge blow by withdrawing in July from a wartime agreement that ensured safe passage for Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. That has left more expensive overland routes through Europe as the main path for Ukraine’s exports.

Farmers in nearby countries have been upset that Ukraine’s food products have flooded their local markets, pushing prices down and hurting their livelihoods. Sealed freight has helped combat that problem, and sending Ukrainian grain straight to the Lithuanian port may also be an answer.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia announced bans on local imports of Ukrainian food after a European Union embargo ended in mid-September. Ukraine filed a complaint soon afterward with the World Trade Organization as the spat worsened.

The EU countries said they would keep allowing those products to move through their borders to parts of the world where people are going hungry.

Ukraine is a major global supplier of wheat, barley, corn and vegetable oil and has struggled since Russia’s invasion to get its food products to parts of the world in need.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian air defenses intercepted 29 out of 31 Shahed drones and one Iskander-K cruise missile launched over Ukraine early Tuesday morning, Ukraine's air force reported.

The attack was targeted at Ukraine’s eastern Dnipropetrovsk region and the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, it said. No injuries were reported but an industrial facility was damaged.

Ukraine’s presidential office said Tuesday that at least two civilians were killed and 14 were wounded over the previous 24 hours.

The greatest number of casualties occurred in the south, where the Russian army shelled the regional capital Kherson nine times, it said.

___

Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, and Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed to this report.

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