People walk in the city centre as the country's coronavirus disease COVID - 19 restrictions eased in Warsaw, Poland May 15, 2021. Picture taken May 15, 2021. Reuters - Almost three quarters of Poles think authorities should accept some or all EU demands to roll back judicial reforms it says violate the rule of law, a survey showed, suggesting strong disapproval of the hardline stance the government has taken.
Warsaw's already fraught relations with Brussels were plunged into crisis on 7 Oct when the country's Constitutional Tribunal ruled that parts of the European Union treaties were incompatible with its constitution. Poland was already at risk of losing billions in EU funds for failing to comply with demands to roll back the judicial reforms that Brussels says undermine the independence of the country's courts.
According to the IBRiS poll for Rzeczpospolita daily, 40.8% of respondents believe the government should accept defeat and end that row as soon as possible, while 32.5% says it should compromise and accept some of Brussels' conditions.
Only 23% believe the government should not compromise at all, even if that means losing EU funds.
Poland argues that the European Union is overstepping its mandate and, in a Financial Times interview published on Sunday, the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party's PiS Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, accused the European Commission of holding a gun to our head. But surveys also show that the Polish public remains overwhelmingly pro-European, with two this month putting support for EU membership at 90%.
Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a political scientist at Warsaw University, said public opinion might convince the government to compromise.
However, that could alienate hard-right voters, political scientist Rafal Chwedoruk told Rzeczpospolita. It will be more and more difficult for the government, he was quoted as saying.
Such voters could be key to PiS's hopes of gaining an absolute parliamentary majority in national elections scheduled for 2023. PiS is currently just short of a majority.
An IBRiS poll published on Monday put support for the party at 36%, in line with recent similar surveys but down from 43.6% who voted for it at the 2019 election.