Keeping an Eye on the Geopolitical Ball | How populism was defeated in Polands national elections

Published: Oct. 20, 2023, 7:01 a.m.

In this week\u2019s episode of Keeping an Eye on the Geopolitical Ball, Jamie Shea, Senior Fellow at Friends of Europe, looks at last Sunday\u2019s national elections in Poland. Despite populists having achieved great electoral success as of late, such as Slovakia\u2019s Robert Fico for SMER and Germany\u2019s far-right AfD in two regional elections, Poland\u2019s opposition unexpectedly won against the ruling Law and Justice party. The victory of Donald Tusk\u2019s Civic Coalition came as a surprise to many due to Law and Justice having put its trusted supporters into all key levers of power, curtailed the freedom of the media and tilted the electoral playing field in its favour. Consequently, Jamie dismantles how it was possible for the populists to be defeated despite having rigged the system in their favour. He outlines five lessons learned for other EU countries that struggle with populist actors in power.