ELECTIONS OFVTHE SEIMAS AND THE SENATE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND ON OCTOBER 15, 2023: IN SEARCH OF A «THIRD FORCE» AND THE BACKGROUND OF THE CRISIS IN RELATIONS WITH UKRAINE

Abstract

It is noted that last year’s parliamentary elections in Poland, probably for the third time (after the 2015 and 2019 elections), demonstrated public demand for a relatively speaking new «third force» in the systemic confrontation between the «Law and Justice» (PiS) parties and «Civil Coalition» (KO).It was noted that the fact that the leader of a new formation is entering the Polish political scene, capable of creating an alternative to both the antagonism of the «Law and justice» (PiS–GK) and the «Polish Peasant Party» (PSP) and the permanent transformations of the Polish left, became obvious as a result of the presidential elections of 2020, when the third place was unexpectedly won by the popular television presenter and volunteer Shimon Holovnia.It is established that in 2021–2022, the peak of Holovny’s popularity passed, and at the start of last year’s parliamentary campaign, the political situation in Poland seemed no longer so effective for the political force of S. Holovny «Poland–2020». That is why, on April  27, 2023, PSP V. Kosiniak-Kamisha and «Poland 2050» Sh. Golovny reached an understanding on joint participation in the next parliamentary elections in the format of the «Third Way» coalition.For the first time in domestic political and historical science, the results of one of the new strong actors of the Polish political scene in the elections to the Diet and the Senate on October 15, 2023 was comprehensively analyzed.The main focus is on the selection of voivodships and individual electoral districts, where the candidates of the «Third Way» achieved significant results, securing the new political force a confident third place in last year’s elections to the National Assembly of the Republic of Poland.At the same time, the relatively unsuccessful results of the election campaign to the Senate are indicated, where, despite the candidacies agreed within the so-called Senatorial Pact for all one hundred electoral districts, «Third Way» won only 11 mandates (with 27 candidates).It is asserted that the entry of the parties «Poland 2050» and the Polish Peasant Party into the parliamentary-government coalition led by the leader of the «Civic Platform» party and together with the «New Left» parties initiated a new situation in modern Polish political practice, which, given the incomplete six months of its existence, needs further study.It is emphasized that in relation to the Ukrainian context, it is quite obvious that in the conditions of a systemic crisis in official relations between Warsaw and Kyiv, the appearance of a new «third» force, given the dual nature of its formation and functioning, unfortunately did not become a factor that would work for their normalization in the conditions of large-scale Russian aggression against Ukraine and the Kremlin’s hybrid operations against Poland itself.