The centrist pro-European opposition won a parliamentary majority in Poland on Sunday, defeating the ruling nationalist and far-right coalition, according to exit polls.
The general election has been dubbed as crucial for Poland's future in the EU and its relations with Kyiv, Belga News Agency reports.
If these results are confirmed, the elections will put an end to the eight-year government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has faced numerous clashes with the EU over its democratic backsliding – notably weakening the independence of the country's judicial system and government control of public media.
The three opposition parties, the Civic Coalition (KO), the Christian Democrats of the Third Way and the Left, together won 248 seats in the 460-member parliament, compared with a combined 212 seats for the PiS and the far-right Confederation.
"Poland has won, democracy has won, we have driven them from power... this is the end of this bad period, this is the end of the reign of PiS," declared the President of KO, Donald Tusk, immediately after the publication of the polls.
Aged 66, Tusk was Polish Prime Minister between 2007 and 2014 and President of the European Council between 2014 and 2019. He promised to re-establish good relations with the European Union and to unfreeze European funds frozen by Brussels due to disputes during the two terms of office of the PiS government.
Tusk also promised to liberalise abortion rights, a major point of disagreement with the PiS government, which has emphasised Catholic values.
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski hailed the relative success of his movement, which will have 200 parliamentary seats but no majority to form a government. "Whether we are in power or in opposition, ... we will not allow Poland to be betrayed", he declared.
'Time for a change'
"There is now a chance for an opposition government to emerge. I think this is in fact the end of the PiS government... It's a chance for us to rebuild our position, first and foremost in Europe", said Stanislaw Mocek, a political scientist and President of Collegium Civitas University.
Turnout was high - the exit poll put the national figure at 72.9% - an all-time high since the fall of communism in 1989, and AFP journalists reported on crowded polling stations throughout the day.
Many voters expressed their frustration with the government. "It's time for a change," Ewa Bankowska, a 43-year-old finance worker, told AFP as she voted in Halinow, a town just outside Warsaw. "I'm concerned about the economy. I'd like us to develop and for the government to stop spending money it doesn't have." But Dorota Zbig, a 57-year-old nurse, said that the last few years of the PiS government "have been very good for me and my family".
Donald Tusk. Credit: Belga
In order to form a coalition government, KO, the Third Way and the Left still need to reach an agreement, but their leaders have already declared their willingness to do so. "We will probably wait a dozen hours for the official results (...), then we will sit down to discuss and we will certainly reach an agreement," assured Donald Tusk.
During the campaign, PiS pledged to pursue its controversial reforms of the judicial system, which it claims are aimed at eradicating corruption but the EU has called the reforms an attack on democracy.
The campaign was marked by violent personal attacks on Tusk by those in power, who accused him of representing the interests of Berlin, Moscow and Brussels.
What this means for Ukraine
Kyiv and its Western allies are watching these elections closely, following the recent election in Slovakia of a government hostile to aid for Ukraine.
Poland has been one of Kyiv's main supporters and has welcomed a million Ukrainian refugees to its shores, but Poles are growing increasingly weary. The PiS government has fallen out with Ukraine by imposing an embargo on its grain imports, arguing that it is necessary to protect Polish farmers.
