A new progressive party in Poland run by an openly gay politician has vaulted into third place in a public opinion poll, potentially complicating the ruling conservatives' prospects for winning a parliamentary election later this year.
A former mayor of the northern city of Słupsk, Robert Biedroń, 42, presented his new "Spring" party on Sunday, with a program that includes liberalizing Poland's strict abortion laws, phasing out coal by 2035 and taxing the powerful Catholic Church.
A survey published late on Tuesday by private broadcaster TVN, the first since the party's launch, showed its support at 14 percent. The ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party stood at 29 percent, one percentage point lower than in January.
The main centrist opposition grouping, which consists of the Civic Platform of European Council President Donald Tusk and a smaller pro-business party, saw its support slip five percentage points to 20 percent, the poll by Kantar Millward Brown showed.
One of Europe's biggest eurosceptic parties in power, PiS has welcomed the rising popularity of Biedroń, a former gay rights activist, as having the potential to further fragment the opposition in Poland.
But the emergence of Spring, with its strongly pro-EU platform, could become a threat to PiS rule if it galvanizes voters outside the traditional centrist electorate who are angry over the government's mounting conflict with the European Union.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters