Polish party wants candidates to pledge to pay 1 million zloty to charity if they defect after election

Candidates standing for the Polish People’s Party (PSL), a centre-right opposition group, will be asked to sign a pledge saying they will pay one million zloty (€220,000) to charity if they defect to a different party after this year’s elections, its leader has announced.

The move comes amid concerns that the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party could attempt to remain in power by encouraging lawmakers from other groups to defect after the election if it fails to win an outright parliamentary majority.

„Żeby nie było sprzedawania się”. Kosiniak-Kamysz chce miliona złotych kary za odejście z PSL po wyborach#300POLITYKALIVE https://t.co/nd6prZVK5l

— 300Polityka (@300polityka) May 19, 2023

In an interview today with online news service Onet, PSL’s leader, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, noted that during the current parliamentary term a number of MPs have switched allegiance.

In 2021, Monika Pawłowska, an opposition MEP from The Left (Lewica), joined the national-conservative ruling camp. Paweł Kukiz, a rock star turned politician, who eventually agreed to work with the ruling party, also accused PiS of trying to poach his MPs in 2020.

But defections have also happened in the other direction, with 2021 seeing Wojciech Maksymowicz leave the PiS caucus and join Poland 2050 (Polska 2050), an opposition party now allied with PSL. Previously, Joanna Mucha, an MP from Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition group, had also defected to Poland 2050.

A leading MP from Poland's left-wing opposition has defected to join a party in the conservative ruling coalition.

The surprise decision was criticised by her former colleagues, who dug up examples of her criticising the government and supporting abortion https://t.co/CyjCGrtsbP

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) March 22, 2021

“I would like [MPs] to be credible so that there is no selling out, to show loyalty to voters,” Kosiniak-Kamysz told Onet. He confirmed that the party will prepare a document that can be publicly signed by candidates and notarised.

The agreement will stipulate a penalty of one million zloty for breaking it, payable to the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (WOŚP) or Caritas, two of the largest charities in Poland. “If someone leaves, at least something good will be left behind,” said Kosiniak-Kamysz.

The PSL leader emphasised that signing the agreement would be voluntary. However, he did not answer a question as to whether doing so would be a condition for standing on the party’s electoral lists.

“I don’t imagine that anyone would not want to submit such a declaration to show their credibility,” he added.

Opposition parties Poland 2050 and PSL have formed a coalition ahead of this year's elections.

They say it will offer a "third way, an alternative to a Poland torn in half". It will also help them avoid falling below the vote threshold to enter parliament https://t.co/nNo7MhDnUH

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 27, 2023

Current polling indicates that, although PiS is on track to win the elections, it may fall short of a parliamentary majority. That could lead it to attempt to persuade MPs from other parties to switch allegiance in order to obtain that majority.

The ruling party is currently averaging 34% in polls, which would translate to 188 seats in parliament, short of the 231-seat majority needed to govern independently, estimates polling aggregator ewybory.pl

The centrist PO is in second place, with around 26%, followed by the PSL-Poland 2050 coalition (14%) and The Left (10%). That would give those parties a combined 231 seats, estimates ewybory.pl, enough to form a government if they formed a coalition.

The far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) is also on around 10%, translating to 40 seats. Given how close the elections are currently predicted to be, it is possible that neither PiS nor the mainstream opposition would be able to form a government without some kind of support from Confederation.