Referendum in Poland 2015

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The 2015 referendum in Poland took place on September 6, 2015 after it was proposed by then President Bronisław Komorowski and approved by the Senate. Citizens were asked to vote yes or no on three questions. The cost was estimated at 100 million złoty , which corresponds to around 25 million euros. Political scientists criticized the fact that this referendum was made for reasons of election tactics, because Komorowski feared his re-election in the 2015 presidential election.

Referendum questions

The three questions in the referendum were:

  1. Are you in favor of introducing majority voting in elections to the Sejm ?
  2. Are you in favor of maintaining the previous party funding from the state budget?
  3. Are you in favor of a decision in favor of the taxpayer in case of doubt (In dubio pro tributario)?

The results would be binding if the voter turnout had exceeded 50% ( quorum ). Due to the fact that the referendum was barely covered in the media and voter turnout in Poland is traditionally low, political scientists estimated that a maximum of 30% of those eligible would vote. In fact, the turnout was only 7.8%, which was seen as a defeat for Paweł Kukiz , who surprisingly came third in the presidential election in May 2015 and at whose request the referendum was reduced during the election campaign at the time.

Survey

date Institute Question # 1 Question # 2 Question # 3 Participation
Yes No Indecisive Yes No Indecisive Yes No Indecisive
17–24.08
CBOS 41% 22% 19% 14% 73% 7% 76% 4% 11% 52%
08/24
Millward Brown 62% 28% 9% 19% 75% 6% 90% 4% 4% 55%
01-08.07
CBOS 45% 16% 25% 13% 75% 9% 81% 4% 11% 62%
11-17.06
CBOS 54% 18% 16% 15% 75% 6% 82% 5% 8th % 60%
8–9.06
TNS Polska 60% 20% 20% 19% 73% 8th % 90% 4% 6% 76%
22-23 May
IBRiS 61% 20% 19% 15% 74% 11% 88% 3% 9% 51%

Official end result

2015 referendum result in Poland
answer Question # 1 Question # 2 Question # 3
be right % be right % be right %
Yes 1,829,995 78.75 404.515 17.37 2,194,689 94.51
No 493.935 21.25 1,923,994 82.63 127.395 5.49
Turnout: 7.8%
Data: State Electoral Commission ( Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza )

The referendum is deemed to have failed because the required voter turnout of 50% was not achieved. At only 7.8%, this was the lowest voter turnout in an election in a European country after 1945.

Controversy

Political observers saw this referendum as a purely populist measure by President Komorowski, who wanted to score points in the 2015 presidential election shortly before the runoff election against his opponent Andrzej Duda , who was just ahead in the polls . Candidate Paweł Kukiz scored highly in the first round because of this demand for a referendum.

In this context, the high costs of holding the referendum were also criticized, as in Poland a referendum is only held on existential issues and is not a traditional means of direct democracy , such as B. in Switzerland.

Some constitutional judges considered the first referendum on changing the electoral system to be illegal, as it required a prior change in the constitution.

The second question was also criticized for being imprecise. It could be understood as both an increase and a decrease in party funding.

The last question had become superfluous due to an amendment to tax law decided on July 10, 2015 in the Sejm .

After the Law and Justice party (PiS) unsuccessfully requested an extension of the referendum to include three more questions, the new President Andrzej Duda, who belonged to this party until May, officially requested a referendum on these three questions from the Senate. This concerned the lowering of the retirement age, the choice of the year of school enrollment and protection against the privatization of state forests. To this end, six million signatures were collected by citizens' groups. The second referendum should take place parallel to the parliamentary elections on October 25, 2015. Here, too, as with Komorowski, Duda had to put up with the accusation that this project was purely populist in order to support the PiS in the upcoming parliamentary elections in autumn.

However, the Senate, the majority of which were senators from the Civic Platform (PO) at the time , rejected the new president's proposal.

After the parliamentary elections in October 2015 , in which the PiS gained a majority in the Sejm and Senate, the idea of ​​a new referendum was no longer pursued.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. project Postanowienia Prezydenta RP. Retrieved June 1, 2015 (Polish).
  2. a b Referendum Ogólnokrajowe 6 września 2015. In: pkw.gov.pl. Retrieved September 7, 2015 (Polish).
  3. Dorota Bartyzel, Piotr Skolimowski: Polish Rock Star-Turned-Politician Set to Burn Out in Referendum. In: Bloomberg Business , September 4, 2015 (English)
  4. Sondaż CBOS: 32 proc. Polaków na pewno weźmie udział w referendum. In: wp.pl. Retrieved September 2, 2015 (Polish).
  5. Czy referendum będzie wiążące? Mamy najnowszy sondaż dla Faktów TVN i TVN24. In: fakty.tvn24.pl. Retrieved August 27, 2015 (Polish).
  6. Polacy o referendum na dwa miesiące przed głosowaniem. In: cbos.pl. Retrieved August 19, 2015 (Polish).
  7. CBOS: Większość Polaków never like, czego będzie dotyczyć referendum. In: fakty.interia.pl. June 25, 2015, accessed July 1, 2015 (Polish).
  8. Sondaż dla "Wiadomości" TVP 1: proc 76th badanych chce wziąć udział w referendum. (No longer available online.) In: onet.pl. June 14, 2015, archived from the original on June 16, 2015 ; Retrieved June 14, 2015 (Polish). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / wiadomosci.onet.pl
  9. ^ "Rz": Nowy sondaż. Dotyczy referendum w sprawie JOW-ów. In: m.interia.pl. June 1, 2015, accessed June 1, 2015 (Polish).
  10. Komorovsky's referendum in September? from: polen-heute.de from May 14, 2015
  11. Trzy nowe pytania w referendum? PiS chce zapytać Polaków o obniżenie wieku emerytalnego. In: gazetaprawna.pl. August 11, 2015, accessed August 15, 2015 (Polish).