Politics in Krakow

Most powerful party in Krakow, like in entire Poland, is the center-right Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska or PO in short). The country’s main opposition party, the right-wing Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc, usually referred to by acronym PiS) comes second in the city’s politics as well. Poland’s leftist parties, the self-disowned heirs to the fortunes of the Soviet-era all-powerful Polish United Workers Party (communist), still retain minute popularity with the Krakow voters; notably the strongest of them – Alliance of the Democratic Left (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej or SLD).

In the face of fierce rivalry nationwide between the Civic Platform and the PiS, local politicos mostly play party politics in Krakow striving for career in the country’s capital. Nevertheless, when convenient, they can readily strike a bipartisan deal. At the same time, both parties lack strong leaderships in the city and both are prone to debilitating infighting.

On the strength of their stellar performance on the all-nation political stage, Zbigniew Ziobro MEP of PiS and Jaroslaw Gowin MP of the Civic Platform are now Krakow’s most popular politicians. Besides, two natives of Krakow are key cabinet ministers in the Polish government, Mr. Bogdan Klich runs the Ministry of Defense and Mr. Jerzy Miller is in charge of the Ministry of Internal Affairs overseeing state administration as well as the police forces.

Seeing that the residents of Krakow vote overwhelmingly for the right and the center-right parties it may come as a surprise that they elected a left-wing mayor for two consecutive terms, in 2002 and in 2006. Mr Jacek Majchrowski, law professor at the Jagiellonian University, run as an independent but he has never shunned his ties to the Alliance of the Democratic Left. Still his ‘cohabitation’ with mostly right-wing City Council has gone largely smoothly.