Polish opposition kicks off election campaign with 'Polexit' warning

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Poland's biggest opposition front launched its campaign for next month's European Parliament election on Saturday by warning that the ruling Eurosceptic Law and Justice Party (PiS) could eventually lead the country out of the EU.

Poles overwhelming support remaining in the bloc, and the PiS has never called for Poland to leave, but opposition leaders say the party's fierce anti-EU rhetoric and a series of disputes with Brussels bring "Polexit" a step nearer.

Seeking to appeal to voters' pro-European sentiment, leaders of the opposition European Coalition (KE) said May's European election poses a stark choice about the nation's future.

Grzegorz Schetyna, the Leader of Civic Platform (PO) and Leader of the Opposition, August 31, 2017. /VCG Photo

"There's a great choice ahead: either strong, rich, democratic Poland in a strong Europe, or what we see today – party state, on its way to leave the EU," said Grzegorz Schetyna, head of the centrist Civic Platform (PO), which is part of the multi-party KE grouping.

"We're facing elections to the European Parliament that are the most important elections since 1989. Now even more is at stake," he told a KE convention on Saturday, referring to the election 30 years ago that marked the return of democracy.

Supporters attend the convention of the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) in Warsaw, Poland, September 2, 2018. /VCG Photo

If Poland was to hold a referendum similar to Britain's Brexit ballot, 88 percent of Poles would vote against leaving the bloc, according to an opinion poll published this month by IBSP.

The ruling party, which has governed Poland since 2015, has retained solid support among voters despite a series of corruption scandals and opposition criticism that its legal and media reforms are a thinly veiled power grab.

(Cover: European Union and Poland's flags flutter at the Orlen refinery in Mazeikiai, Lithuania, April 5, 2019. /Reuters Photo)

Source(s): Reuters