Polish ex-pats queued round the block in Hove to vote in their home country’s elections on Sunday.
More than 600,000 Polish nationals living abroad registered to vote, with polling stations set up in 417 locations outside Poland.
One is at the Polish Community Centre in Farm Road Hove, where scores of voters lined up to have their say.
The election has seen the end of right-wing populist party Law and Justice’s grip on power after eight turbulent years.
Although it won the most votes of any single party – 35% – the country’s three largest opposition parties together won about 54% of the votes, final results show.
Turnout was nearly 75%, a record that surpassed the 63% turnout of 1989, a vote that triggered the collapse of the oppressive Soviet-backed communist system.
While breakdowns for this year’s vote are not yet available, at the last parliamentary elections in 2019, Poles abroad were much more likely to vote for the opposition than those in Poland itself.
Law and Justice (PiS) had been taking the country on an illiberal path, taking control of courts in a manner that violated the country’s own constitution.
The party politicised state institutions, including taxpayer-funded public media which it used as a crude propaganda tool to praise itself and vilify opponents.
The result was a huge victory for Donald Tusk, the head of the largest opposition group, Civic Coalition.
He appeared likely to return to his past role as Polish prime minister, a job he held from 2007-14. He also served as the European Council president, a top job in the bloc, from 2014-19.
Mr Tusk’s success is all the more remarkable given that state media went into overdrive to portray him as a stooge of Germany and Russia. That portrayal, which appeared baseless, also won him much sympathy.
The result was a huge relief for Poles concerned about the country’s international isolation at a time of war across the border in Ukraine and the constant bickering with the European Union. Many feared it could cause the country’s eventual ejection from the 27-member bloc.
The LGBT+ community also suffered a smear campaign in recent years, being portrayed as a threat to the nation by the conservative ruling party. Liberals were also depicted as disloyal to the country.
The National Electoral Commission said that Law and Justice won slightly over 35% of the votes, and the far-right Confederation, a possible ally, about 7%.
Three opposition groups won a total of 53.7%, enough for a comfortable majority in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, or Sejm. The Civic Coalition garnered 30.7% of the vote while the centrist Third Way got 14.4% and the New Left about 8.6%.
The three ran on separate tickets so they are not formally part of the same coalition but all promised to cooperate to restore the rule of law.
Yes Pis are illiberal but Tusk is a slippery character as well!
These are not ‘ex-pats’ these are Polish immigrants to the UK which is fine by me but let’s not pretend otherwise!
Why is it ok for English people to call themselves ex pats then? Never heard of an English immigrant in Spain. They are all ex pats.