I won’t pretend to be an expert on Polish politics, other than knowing that the current ruling party is an Catholic, xenophobic bunch of reactionaries led by the freakish Kaczynski twins playing off the fears of old people to stay in power and that this helped drive a lot of more younger, more liberal Poles out of the country to make their fortunes elsewhere, after Poland joined the EU in 2004. This diaspora has had some unforeseen consequences, as Poles abroad voted in record numbers:
Kaczynski relied on his established voter base but his opponents were far more successful at mobilize fresh support on Sunday. By midday, expatriate voters were queuing up outside the Polish embassy in London to cast their ballots. The line was several hundred meters long. About a million Poles have moved to Britain in search of higher-paid work since Poland joined the European Union in 2004.
The same for the Netherlands, where the embassy expected some 2600 people to turn up to vote. You might call it the first truly European election, with so much of the electorate working in other EU countries. It won’t be the last.