Local elections in Poland: how rural areas and farmers voted
Local elections were held in Poland on 7. April. The elections were won by Law and Justice (PiS) ahead of the Civic Coalition (KO) - a victory in numbers.
PIS formally wins in 7 voivodeships (out of 16), only in 4 it has an independent majority. Therefore, in the case of individual regions, it is Donald Tusk's ruling party that has triumphed and it is the ruling coalition that will govern and co-govern in 12 out of 16 voivodeships. PiS party clearly won among villagers and farmers.
Among farmers, the grouping which recently ruled Poland received more than 57 % support and left other parties far behind. The second position in this social group was taken by Third Way (Trzecia Droga), with 15.1 % support. Trzecia Droga is a political bloc formed by the Polish Peasant Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe) and co-founded the government (the Polish Minister of Agriculture comes from this group).
The Civic Coalition (KO), the party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, won less than 7% of the vote among farmers.
When looking at the election more broadly, rural residents (not to be confused with farmers) overall were also most likely to vote for PiS (43.2% support in rural areas). This was followed by KO (20.6 %), Third Way (15.5 %). It is worth noting that it was in the rural areas that the highest turnout was recorded in the local elections, with 54 % of Poles voting.
Source: Rzeczpospolita, Farmer.pl