For the first time in recent years in Poland, capital punishment has more opponents than supporters in Poland – 52 percent of Poles are against reinstating the death penalty, according to a new opinion poll by GfK Polonia. This is a big shift in opinion from six months ago.
An opinion polls carried out in March 2007 showed 63% support for the death penalty; 31% of Poles were against.
Some political scientists are skeptical of the poll.
Marek Migalski, the Silesia University, of the Silesian University told Rzeczpospolita: “Poles have had no reason to change their point of view so quickly and radically’, he says.
When the country joined the EU Poland ratified the European Convention on Human Rights, which forbids the death penalty.
Some Polish politicians, including the ruling Law and Justice party and President Lech Kaczyński, are for reinstating the death penalty, however.
And Poland this week vetoed in Brussels the planned EU Day Against the Death Penalty in October.