Hundreds of Poles are queuing up in Groningen on Sunday to vote for their parliament. According to a polling station employee, 2,300 people have registered.
Bartosz (20), Jagoda (20), and Natalia (19) all study in Groningen. They have now been waiting in line for almost an hour and a half in front of the De Wende community center in the Vinkhuizen district. “But this is our duty,” says Bartosz.
Against the PiS
The students are terrified that the extremely conservative PiS of Mateusz Morawiecki will become the largest again. This party won an absolute majority in the previous elections.
Under Morawiecki’s rule, abortion was banned in many cases. ‘LGBTI-free zones’ also emerged in some areas. For example, information about homosexuality was not allowed in these areas. Under pressure from the EU, these zones were abolished again.
Morawiecki’s major challenger is Donald Tusk with his Civic Platform party. He was Prime Minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014. He then became President of the European Council. In recent weeks he organized several large demonstrations against the government.
2300 registrations
Ewa Maria Krzykowska works at the polling station. “This year, 2,300 people have registered to vote in Groningen.” That is more than three times as many as in the previous elections when 700 people registered to vote in Groningen. The polling station in Vinkhuizen is one of thirteen polling stations in the Netherlands, but the only station in the North.
This trend can be seen worldwide. According to the British newspaper The Guardian more than 600,000 Poles registered to vote from abroad. In the previous elections there were 314,000. In the Netherlands, 37,000 people registered. Krzykowska: “This election is very important for the people.”
‘I want to change something’
Bartosz, Jagoda and Natalia are happy with the high turnout. According to them, this means that Poles in the Netherlands really want to change something. Edyta (41) also wants that. She is from Dronten and had to come to Groningen to vote. She does not want her last name in the newspaper and does not say what she is going to vote for. “But I really want to change something.”
None of the people who DVHN speaks on Sunday afternoon, says he will vote for the PiS. A woman who does not want her name in the newspaper calls it an extremist party that wants to oppress minorities. “I actually don’t think you should vote for a country if you no longer live there, but I’m really worried in this case.” Another couple calls the PiS anti-democratic and anti-European. “That party has to go.”