Civic Platform

The prime ministers of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Poland, Donald Tusk, have signed a joint letter of support on behalf of the European People's Party (EPP) for the candidacy of Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking a new term as Commission president.

After the unexpected success of the opposition march last Sunday in Warsaw, which put a record half a million people on the streets of the capital according to the organisers, democratic political parties seeking to defeat PiS in the general election are feeling emboldened.

Independent website onet.pl used aerial images to calculate that at least 300,000 took to the streets. The centre of Warsaw was completely paralysed and protesters had to walk across the city to get to the meeting place on Sunday at noon.

One thing Pavel won't be doing is inviting his 800 or so guests back for a nightcap, because Prague Castle has run out of booze. An audit carried out by the presidential office has found that the alcohol warehouse is practically empty, with significant volumes missing.

Yet even if it wanted to cut a deal with the EU, PiS is caught between a rock and hard place with its junior coalition partner, the party of Zbigniew Ziobro. The hardline justice minister won't agree to any compromises with Brussels, but dropping him from the coalition would result in a minority government, which is definitely not an ideal situation in an election year.

To get the law through, the ruling Law and Justice {PiS} even rejected some amendments proposed by MPs from the party of hardline Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. On Wednesday night, it seemed the Justice Ministers' crowd was ready to let this one go in the name of, as they said, "a far-reaching compromise".

So far, Ziobro has opposed any compromise with Brussels, but the new scenario discussed this week is that his party would submit amendments to a presidential draft law to dismantle the Chamber, which PiS would later accept.

Tusk's announcement is important because it means the liberal opposition has received support from maverick politician Pawel Kukiz, whose four MPs are currently key to PiS maintaining its parliamentary majority. To support the opposition request, Kukiz has asked for the commission to have a broader remit, investigating surveillance under several governments, including Civic Platform ones.

The centre-right European People's Party (EPP), the largest political group in the European Parliament, sounded the alarm on Thursday (7 October), warning that Poland's ruling party is pushing the country towards 'Polexit'.

With 76 percent of the protocols processed, the ruling United Russia party received 49.16 percent of the vote in the parliamentary elections, and can count on 196 seats for which a majority vote is cast, the Central Election Commission said, citing the business information platform RBC.