Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s largest opposition party, is facing its most serious internal challenge after 40 MPs left the party’s parliamentary group following a dispute between former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and longtime PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński over Development Plus, an internal platform created by Morawiecki. While the group was created to broaden the PiS voter base with moderate, economically driven voters, PiS’ leadership saw it as a direct challenge and insisted on its dissolution, which Morawiecki and his supporters rejected. As a result, 40 MPs left the PiS parliamentary group on 29th July, cementing the new political platform and triggering the largest split in PiS’ history. The event also marks the most significant challenge yet to Kaczyński’s leadership of PiS.
As a new parliamentary group, Development Plus will have its own organizational resources and representation and will seek a revised allocation of committee positions in the 460-seat Sejm (lower house). The group could therefore become an autonomous parliamentary actor even before establishing a political party, which has not yet been determined. PiS will no longer be the largest parliamentary group, ceding this position to Prime Minister Tusk’s senior coalition KO, while Development Plus itself will immediately become the third largest parliamentary formation.
Development Plus is now expected to create a separate political party to participate in the 2027 elections. The parliamentary group will have immediate visibility, but will need local structures, financing, candidates and a program sufficiently distinct from both PiS and Tusk’s Civic Coalition. The upcoming months will be crucial in deciding whether the party’s parliamentary performance will turn into an adequate level of public support as PiS is competing with an increasing number of formations to attract conservative and right-wing voters ahead of the next election.
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