In Poland, the local elections (municipal, municipal, regional) this Sunday will serve as a test for the Polish government in power since last December. This is the first election that the coalition led by pro-European Donald Tusk is facing. And the main ruling party could well confirm its good results.
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With our correspondent in Warsaw, Martin Chabal
Prime Minister Donald Tusk should be smiling after the first round of local elections. His party, Civic Platform, is expected to win the majority of large cities and strategic regions and thus enjoy a little more of its post-election honeymoon.
But all is not rosy in the camp of the parliamentary majority. The ruling coalition crumbled a little during the campaign, Civic Platform having refused to run with the progressives of the New Left.
The recent debates on abortion have also weakened cohesion at the top of the state. While the coalition had promised to make it legal within a hundred days of its election, the Christian Democrats in the party are slowing down discussions. And the party of the head of the Assembly could be sanctioned at the polls today.
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For their part, the populists of the Law and Justice party (PiS), in power for the last eight years, will try to limit the damage. They have no chance of winning large cities and will have difficulty forming coalitions to run local governments. Unless the ultra-liberal and far-right Konfederacja party achieves a political breakthrough, as some polls suggest. A breakthrough surely insufficient to shake the camp in power.