Most Poles believe the country’s centrist prime minister, Donald Tusk, is struggling to deliver on his campaign promises from last year, a survey has found.
The findings by the Polish daily Wirtualna Polska underline the deepening conflict between the members of the government coalition (Civic Coalition, Third Way, The Left) who joined forces only to defeat the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party but now find themselves increasingly unable to agree on certain policy issues just 200 days into their mandate.
The specific question posed by the United Surveys researchers, the company that conducted the poll for WP, was “Do you think that Donald Tusk’s government is fulfilling the promises made during the election campaign?”
A total of 53.5% of all respondents said they believed the government was failing to deliver on those promises, while only 39.6% said they were confident that Tusk was on the right track. Only 6.9% had no opinion on the matter, which is telling in itself.
Interesting findings also emerged when the researchers broke down the data by party affiliation. Among voters of the governing parties, 68% believe Tusk is fulfilling the promises that put him into office, but a shocking 24% are dissatisfied with his track record, including 2% who say he is definitely not doing what he was given a mandate for.
The public approval of Tusk’s cabinet has especially fallen in recent weeks and months as the government failed to push its landmark abortion reform bill through parliament, even though Tusk promised his voters that it would be one of the first things he would do after taking office.
The bill failed despite the government having a majority in the Sejm (Polish parliament), due to the Civic Platform’s junior coalition partner, the right-wing Polish People’s Party (PSL) voting against the measure along with the opposition parties, in defiance of the direction set by Tusk.
Looking at the fresh data, one notable group is the 2% of Civic Coalition (KO) voters who firmly believe Tusk has failed in his job. “These are voters who could potentially shift their support to PiS,” said Professor Roman Bäcker from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń in an interview with Wirtualna Polska.
However, the political scientist noted that the most crucial group is the 22% of KO voters who said Tusk was “rather not” meeting his campaign commitments. “This group might simply choose not to vote in the upcoming elections. Their trust in politicians is no longer as high, and it is this trust that determines whether people feel motivated to vote or not,” Bäcker explained.
