PM Tusk sees support fall for government; photo - PAP

According to a new opinion poll commissioned by Polish Radio the gap between the ruling Civic Platform and opposition Law and Justice has shrunk to just six percentage points - the narrowest gap between the two parties since elections in 2007.

The poll by the Homo Homini Institute finds that if parliamentary elections were held this weekend then the centre-right Civic Platform (PO) would receive 33 percent of the vote, with the more conservative Law and Justice (PiS) on 27 percent.

The poll shows that Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) would receive 16 percent, the junior coalition partner Polish Peasant Party (PSL) 8 percent, and Poland Comes First (PJN) - which split from Law and Justice late last year  - would receive 6 percent of the vote.

The trend of falling support for Civic Platform is confirmed by another poll by TNS OBOP which suggests that the ruling party has lost 16 percent of respondents in just two weeks.

Government hits perfect storm

Observers say that the sharp decline in support for the government comes after the release of the Russian report into the Smolensk air disaster and PM Donald Tusk’s response to it, calls for the resignation of defence minister Bogdan Klich, the planned pension reforms linked to combating public debt, and calls for the resignation of the infrastructure minister over bungled changes to national train timetables which caused chaos for many travellers in December.

MP Jaroslaw Gowin (Civic Platform - Krakow) told Polish Radio this morning that the government has to make some potentially unpopular decisions over pension reform to combat high budget deficits.

Pawel Poncyljusz of the Poland Comes First party told the same programme on Polish Radio 3 that Civic Platform has been presenting a short term “populist mess” of policies and that, ahead of a general election in the autumn this year, the government will now be even more cautious in making crucial reforms in fear of losing even more support.

Leader of Law and Justice’s party in parliament Mariusz Blaszczak said he thought the real level of support for his party was even stronger than polls suggest and that the rise in support for the SLD suggested that many had abandoned Civic Platform and reverted back to supporting the left wing party. (pg)