Next Polish parliamentary election explained

Country:Poland
Type:parliamentary
Ongoing:yes
Previous Election:2023 Polish parliamentary election
Previous Year:2023
Seats For Election:All 460 seats in the Sejm
231 seats needed for a majority
Election Date:By 11 November 2027
Leader1:Jarosław Kaczyński
Party1:PiS
Alliance1:United Right
Leader2:Donald Tusk
Party2:PO
Alliance2:Civic Coalition
Leader3:Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz
Szymon Hołownia
Party3:PSL
PL2050
Alliance3:Third Way
Leader4:Włodzimierz Czarzasty
Robert Biedroń
Party4:NL
Alliance4:The Left
Leader5:Sławomir Mentzen
Krzysztof Bosak
Party5:NN
RN
Alliance5:Confederation
Colour5:122948
Government
Before Election:Third Tusk cabinet
Before Party:KOPSLPL2050NL

Parliamentary elections will be held in Poland by 11 November 2027 at the latest to elect members of the Sejm and Senate, although they can be held sooner if a snap election is called. The last snap election was in 2007. The previous elections in 2023 saw the Law and Justice party win the most seats but fail to form a governing coalition, with a coalition government led by Civic Platform's Donald Tusk formed.

Electoral system

The Sejm elected by party-list proportional representation with seats allocated via the D'Hondt method in multi-seat constituencies,[1] with a 5% threshold for single parties and 8% threshold for coalitions (requirements waived for national minorities).

The date of the election will be set by the President of Poland. If the election isn't called early, it has to take place within 30 days before the expiration of the current term and fall on a non-working day. The possible dates are:

Political parties

The Civic Coalition is a coalition made up of the Civic Platform, Modern, Polish Initiative, and the Greens. The PO has been Poland's second largest political party since 2015 but became the largest party again in the 2024 EP election. They were the leading party of government from 2007 to 2015 and are members of the European People's Party Group (EPP Group).

Law and Justice was in power as the leader of a coalition government between 2015 and the 2023 Polish parliamentary election and was also the leading party of government from 2005 to 2007. United Poland and Kukiz'15 have also been a part of the government and collectively they are known as the United Right.

The Third Way is a centrist to centre-right, Christian democratic coalition. It is made up of the Polish People's Party, which served in all government coalitions since 1989, except those led by Law and Justice (2005–2007 and 2015–2023), and AWS (1997–2001), as well as Poland 2050 which is a new party led by media personality Szymon Hołownia who aims to "bring normality back to politics" in a more green conservative manner.TD is a coalition of members of Renew Europe (Poland 2050) and European People's Party Group (PSL).

The New Left is composed of social liberals, social democrats and democratic socialists, the latter of which is represented by a separate party, Left Together. The alliance's main predecessor, Democratic Left Alliance has been in government coalitions twice: first time in 1993, second in 2001. NL is a member of the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group.

Confederation is a de-jure party but de-facto coalition of the National Movement, New Hope, the Crown and other minor right-wing parties. 3 of their MPS are members of ESN while the other 3 are not members of any pan-European group. They are a mixture of hard libertarian parties as well as nationalist anti-immigrant parties.

Opinion polls

See main article: Opinion polling for the next Polish parliamentary election.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Election Resources on the Internet: Elections to the Polish Sejm, Part I. electionresources.org. 2014-08-03.