The Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS)

The Law and Jus­tice par­ty (Pra­wo i Spraw­iedli­wość, PiS) is a right-wing pop­ulist and nation­al-con­ser­v­a­tive polit­i­cal force in Poland, found­ed in 2001 by twins Jarosław and Lech Kaczyńs­ki. It has been instru­men­tal in defin­ing Poland’s nation­al con­ser­v­a­tive move­ment, pro­mot­ing tra­di­tion­al Catholic val­ues, nation­al sov­er­eign­ty, and a cau­tious stance toward the Euro­pean Union. PiS gov­erned from 2015 to 2023, dur­ing which it imple­ment­ed con­tro­ver­sial judi­cial reforms that drew crit­i­cism from EU insti­tu­tions for under­min­ing demo­c­ra­t­ic norms. Domes­ti­cal­ly, the par­ty paired social conservatism—such as oppos­ing LGBTQ+ rights and restrict­ing abortion—with gen­er­ous wel­fare poli­cies like child sub­si­dies, aim­ing to con­sol­i­date sup­port among rur­al and work­ing-class vot­ers. Its align­ment with sim­i­lar move­ments in Hun­gary, Italy, and the U.S. sit­u­ates it firm­ly with­in the emerg­ing Glob­al Nation­al Con­ser­v­a­tive Network.

Ref­er­ences:

1. Wikipedia – Law and Jus­tice (Poland)

2. UK House of Com­mons Library – Poland’s polit­i­cal outlook

3. Free­dom House – Hos­tile Takeover: How Law and Jus­tice Cap­tured Poland’s Courts

4. Reuters – Poland’s Law and Jus­tice los­es majority

5. Politi­co – How Law and Jus­tice changed Poland