Poll: support for Poland's ruling party nosedives

The poll for the left-of-centre Gazeta Wyborcza daily also found that 58 percent of respondents believe that recent moves by President Andrzej Duda and the PiS parliamentary majority can be considered an “attack on democracy”.

Opponents of PiS claim there has been an erosion of democracy since the party swept to power in Poland’s October general elections, and particularly after it forced through its own choice of judges to the Constitutional Tribunal.

Support for Law and Justice has dropped to 27 percent from 42 percent earlier this month, the TNS pollster found.

Backing for Nowoczesna, founded earlier this year by the economist Ryszard Petru, has risen to 24 percent from 10 percent at the start of the month.

Support for the Civic Platform (PO) party, which governed for eight years before losing power in October, has fallen to 16 percent from 17 percent.

The poll for Gazeta Wyborcza also found that 67 percent of respondents believe that Duda is not an independent politician but takes orders from PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński.

The telephone poll was carried out 10-11 December on a sample of 1,000 adult Poles.

Asked to comment on the sharp differences between the latest poll and the one carried out earlier this month, Urszula Krassowska of TNS told Gazeta Wyborcza: “When so much is happening in public life, every day can have a significant impact on the results.”

She added that the earlier poll was conducted using face-to-face interviews and the later one on the phone. That latter type of survey may produce more frank responses because people feel anonymous, the paper said. (pk/rg)