WARSAW, Poland – A deep ideological and leadership rift has thrown Poland’s largest opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS), into open crisis, with party chairman Jarosław Kaczyński confirming Friday that over 30 sitting parliamentary lawmakers have effectively severed their ties to the conservative nationalist group. The split, which has been months in the making, comes as the party braces for a critical national election next year and faces growing pressure from far-right competitors seeking to erode its voter base.
Law and Justice governed Poland for eight consecutive years from 2015 to 2023, when it was ousted from power by a centrist-liberal coalition led by current Prime Minister Donald Tusk. During its time in office, the party drew widespread international and domestic criticism for overhauling the country’s judicial system – a process that involved packing higher courts with party loyalists and launching disciplinary proceedings against judges who opposed the reforms. Since taking office, Tusk’s administration has made rolling back these judicial changes a top policy priority, but its efforts have been repeatedly blocked by two consecutive Polish presidents who maintain close alignment with Law and Justice.
The internal friction within the party has intensified in recent months, pitting long-time party leader Kaczyński against former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who held the nation’s top executive office from 2017 until the 2023 election defeat. Morawiecki leads a relatively moderate faction within the hardline conservative party, and in April he launched a new policy-focused association called Development Plus, a move that sparked deep suspicion among Kaczyński’s loyalist wing, which viewed the group as a launching pad for a leadership challenge.
Party leadership set a firm deadline of Thursday night for all PiS lawmakers to pledge they would cut ties to any external political associations like Development Plus. A last-minute meeting between Kaczyński and Morawiecki held Thursday failed to bridge their differences, setting the stage for this week’s split.
On Friday, Kaczyński announced the outcome of the deadline, confirming that more than 30 lawmakers had effectively resigned from PiS membership, according to Poland’s national news agency PAP. The party’s political committee is scheduled to hold a formal meeting Tuesday to officially recognize the departures.
But the two sides have already offered conflicting accounts of the situation. Piotr Müller, a Law and Justice member of the European Parliament and a vocal Morawiecki supporter, disputed the leadership’s claims in a post on X, writing that no PiS members affiliated with Development Plus have formally resigned from the main party.
Morawiecki himself offered a muted statement Friday, telling reporters that he and his association’s members have not yet held discussions about forming an entirely new political party. “We have to discuss all plans for the future,” he told PAP, leaving the ultimate outcome of the rift unresolved.
At present, Law and Justice holds 186 of the 460 total seats in the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament. A permanent split that removes more than 30 lawmakers would drastically reshape the country’s opposition landscape ahead of next year’s election, creating uncertainty for both the Tusk government and Poland’s broader political trajectory.