PM-Local Elections Likely To Take Place 7 Apr

The UK Parliament's APPG on Poland posts on X, "Local elections will most likely take place on 7 April, PM Donald Tusk said at a press conference. The second round would be held two weeks later, on 21 April." This would seem to confirm the comments of Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Holownia, who hinted at the 7 April date when speaking in November 2023. The last set of local elections took place in 2018, and were delayedin Nov 2022 by the then-governing right-wing Law and Justice Party (PiS), ostensibly to avoid conflict with the 2023 general election.

• Elections will take place for all 16 provincial (voivodeship) assemblies, 380 county (powiat) councils, and 2477 commune (gmina) councils. In the 2018 vote, the PiS won a plurality of provincial assembly seats with 254 of the 555 on offer, emerging as the largest party in nine, while the centrist Civic Coalition, now led by PM Tusk, came in second with 194 seats and a plurality in seven provincial assemblies.
• The vote will be a key test of the popularity of the current governing parties, haven taken power in the Nov '23 election, as well as the ideologically-diverse governing coalition's ability to hold together in the face of another election campaign.
• Tusk also stated that he has talked with UK PM Rishi Sunak about a visit to London. The PM also claims that "there are signs that confidence in Poland in financial markets is growing."