Poland backs centrist opposition after 8 years of nationalist rule

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The majority of voters in Poland’s general election supported opposition parties that promised to reverse democratic backsliding and repair the nation’s relationship with allies, including the European Union and Ukraine, near-complete results showed Monday.

The result was a disappointment for the Law and Justice party and its leader Jaros?aw Kaczynski, who have governed Poland for eight years with a conservative, nationalist and sometimes anti-EU agenda.

Though it remains Poland’s biggest party, Law and Justice lost its majority in parliament, putting a centrist opposition led by former EU President Donald Tusk in a strong position to take over power, official results indicated, with over 99 percent of districts counted.

It was among the most important elections in an EU country this year, and the results have been anxiously awaited in Brussels, Berlin and other capitals by observers hoping that a step-by-step dismantling of checks and balances could be halted before a turn toward authoritarianism that would be hard to reverse.

After a bitter and emotional campaign, turnout was projected at over 74 percent, the highest level in the country’s 34 years of democracy and surpassing the 63 percent who turned out in the historic 1989 vote that toppled communism. In the city of Wroclaw, the lines were so long that voting continued through the night until nearly 3 a.m.