PiS fractures as Kaczynski expels Morawiecki in power struggle
Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and over 30 delegates have been removed from Law and Justice after refusing a loyalty ultimatum, prompting the formation of a rival association and drawing praise from the ruling coalition.
Poland’s primary opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), has entered a severe internal crisis after leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski expelled former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and more than 30 delegates. The move follows the collapse of a three-hour meeting on Thursday, where Kaczynski issued an ultimatum requiring members to cease activities in Morawiecki’s new association, Development Plus. Morawiecki refused to sign a loyalty pledge, describing the demand as reminiscent of the communist era of the 1980s, and stated that the rebels had been expelled rather than resigned.
The schism centres on the party’s ideological direction and its strategy for the 2027 parliamentary election. Kaczynski has nominated ultraconservative Przemyslaw Czarnek, the former minister of education and science, as the lead candidate. Czarnek has advocated for a hardline stance, including halting military aid to Ukraine until historical disputes are resolved. Morawiecki and his supporters have criticised this nomination as a fundamental mistake, arguing that the party’s shift toward the far-right is alienating centrist voters.
In response to the party’s rightward drift, Morawiecki launched the Development Plus association to attract a broader base of voters. He has invited 1,000 guests from various political backgrounds to a policy event in late July to discuss the country’s future. Despite the expulsion, Morawiecki has maintained that he intends to remain within the PiS fold, aiming to open the party to new voters and ensure a right-wing conservative return to power in 2027.
Polling data indicates that the internal division is impacting PiS’s electoral standing. Recent opinion polls conducted by Opinia24 for TVN and TVN24 show PiS support has dropped to 17.7%, a significant decline from the 35% it achieved in the 2023 parliamentary election. Morawiecki currently holds 6.2% support. The party has also lost ground to two far-right alliances, Confederation Liberty and Independence and the Confederation of the Polish Crown, which together now enjoy more support than PiS alone.
The ruling centre-right coalition under Prime Minister Donald Tusk has welcomed the division as a political advantage. Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski joked about the situation, while political scientist Danuta Plecka described the conflict as a gift to the government. Plecka suggested the dispute may be a staged performance with minimal programmatic differences, arguing that Morawiecki may be intended to win over centrist voters before a post-election reconciliation.
