EU Parliament Elections: Polish citizens head for polling stations on Sunday
Updated 18:31, 27-May-2019
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Polish citizens are heading to the polls tomorrow to elect 51 representatives to the European Union parliament. In a country deeply divided over many EU-related questions, and with the government embroiled in numerous spats with officials in Brussels, analysts are expecting the highest turnout in the history of the EU elections. CGTN's Aljosa Milenkovic is in Warsaw, where he met supporters from opposing sides of the debate.
Anka Adamczyk is a feminist and socialist activist from Warsaw, who actively advocates for more Polish integration into the EU. Here are some of the pictures of her at various anti-government rallies, and here she is speaking at one of those rallies. Now, in Sunday's elections, she'll vote for the pro-EU, leftist party Razem. But, she thinks the majority of votes will be won by the ruling Law and Justice party. But according to her, that's not the biggest problem in these elections.
ANKA ADAMCZYK PRO-EU ACTIVIST "The thing that worries me more is that there are forces extremely far-right, it's not Law and Justice, it's the neo fascists movements that seem to be able to have representatives in the European parliament right now. And this is kind of scary."
It's this "scary" scenario which may have pushed President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, into coming to Poland to personally campaign for the pro-European option at the elections -- the European Coalition. Here he is at a rally that drew thousands in Warsaw. And, while Tusk and the European Coalition have significant support in Poland, their opposition is not lacking in numbers either.
This is Rafal Pytko, a law student who is for Poland's EU membership, but has some serious objections to how it is run.
RAFAL PYTKO LAW STUDENT "Currently the elites in the EU, they've lost connection with the basic fundaments of the EU, which are a common market and treating every country equally. Because, right now in the EU we are facing a crisis which basically started many years ago."
Local analysts are saying that both the ruling Law and Justice party and the European Coalition will be equal at this Sunday's elections.
WOJCIECH PRZYBYLSKI CHIEF EDITOR, VISEGRAD INSIGHT "What will be different is that the newcomers or critics of the European Union will be more vocal, will have some more room and space in the European parliamentary debate, and they will be more exposed to the discourse and to the media."
ALJOSA MILENKOVIC WARSAW "Among Polish citizens, there is no doubt that they want the European Union and are rejecting the idea of a so-called Polexit. But, the string of recent spats between the government in Warsaw and Brussels has seriously shaken the trust that many here had in the EU leadership. A fact that might resonate in Sunday's EU elections. Aljosa Milenkovic, CGTN, Warsaw."