Religiosity as a factor of right-wing party political success – the case of Poland 2015-2020

The aim of this paper is to explore the role of religiosity in successful political campaigns of Law and Justice party in Poland (PiS). Religiosity has traditionally played an important role in Polish political life, reaching back to the 18th century (Grabowska, Szawiel 2001). The Catholic Church had strong influence on the society during the Partitions period (1795-1914) helping to preserve national identity, as well as mobilising Poles to rebuild the state during inter-war period and after the 2nd World War when communist repressions in Poland were intensified (Grabowska, Szawiel 2001). PiS is a right-wing party with strong conservative, traditional and populist orientation. In Poland, conservative views and traditional values are strongly associated with Christianity. Majority of Poles believe in some form of religious philosophy of whom 87% are classified as Catholic Christians. Hence, it comes as no surprise that religiosity plays an important role in political life in Poland. PiS’ growing electoral support from attracting more religious voters can be explained by strong anti-immigrant rhetoric, manifested by PiS government through policy of isolation (refusing to accept immigrant relocation) of Poland from the EU crisis. Immigrants were presented by PiS as a threat to social order, Christian values and Polish tradition. Surveys conducted at the time (CBOS 2015/149) clearly showed a strong increase in popularity of anti-immigrant attitudes among Poles, especially those radically orientated, the percentage doubling as compared to previous measurements. Also, surveys revealed that Poles (CBOS 2015/37) had the most negative attitude (44%) toward Muslims. The important role of Catholic Church and related organisations as political intermediary bodies was also reflected in the survey (CBOS 2019/149) which showed that in 2019, 95% of respondents indicated that Catholic Church representatives (clergy) were actively supporting one political party - PiS. Other sources such as studies conducted by Marcinkiewcz and Dassonneville (2016) based on European Social Survey 8th Edition confirmed significance of voting activity of religious voters in favour of PiS and stronger correlation as compared to other countries, where religiosity also plays important role in public life. In a follow-up analysis of European Social Survey 9th edition data, we found that the highest level of declarative religiosity and the highest level of religious activity (attending religious services) was the characteristic of PiS voters. Lastly, based also on ESS 9th Edition data, the highest level of right-wing orientation level was observed among PiS voters. Those and other findings (Markowski 2018) confirm that religiosity plays an important role in political marketing strategies of PiS. It seems that it is used as a successful tool of manipulation of this share of public opinion which is associated with Christian morality and tradition. It seems that these voters are vulnerable to certain rhetoric, thus differing from other segments of the society (especially younger generations) who demonstrate lesser recognition of the unique role of the Catholic Church in Poland.