Polish opposition parties sign coalition declaration

The initiative, billed as the European Coalition, was signed by the country’s largest opposition party Civic Platform (PO), as well as Modern (Nowoczesna) party, Polish People’s Party (PSL), the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), and Poland’s Greens party.

The move was announced at the parties’ joint conference in Warsaw by Grzegorz Schetyna, leader of the Civic Platform.

Schetyna, a former foreign minister, said earlier this month that opposition groups needed to join forces to ensure a “good and worthy representation” for Poland in the next European Parliament and to prevent the country from “gravitating eastward."

“It’s a start of an election campaign… that will last through the European Parliament elections, the parliamentary elections and will end with presidential elections next year,” Schetyna said on Sunday.

The head of Polish People’s Party, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, was quoted by public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency as saying that the European Coalition was the biggest of its kind in the history of Poland.

The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union, of which Poland has been a member since 2004.

Poles will elect 52 Eurodeputies when they go to the ballot box on May 26, the PAP state news agency reported.

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