Poland election: what Law and Justice win means for Europe

Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski famously stated that migrants bring 'various types of parasites' to Europe

Supporters of the Law and Justice party
(Image credit: Janek Skarzynski/AFP/Getty Images)

Poland looks set to have a new right-wing government following Sunday's elections. With 37.7 per cent of the vote in the exit polls, the Law and Justice (PiS) party dwarfed the Civic Platform party, which had dominated Poland's political life for eight years.

The Civic Platform party appears to have finished the race with 23.6 per cent of the vote and only 137 out of the 460 seats in the lower house of parliament. Its image has also been badly tarnished; an eavesdropping scandal, plans to hike up the retirement age and a "listless campaign" all spelled out the end for Civic Platform. "It wasn't promises, but the degeneration of the ruling camp that was the main reason for PiS's success," says Norbert Maliszewski, a political scientist with the University of Warsaw, for Politico Europe.

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