Law and Justice

History

Formation

The party was created on a wave of popularity gained by Lech Kaczyński while heading the Polish Ministry of Justice (June 2000 to July 2001) in the AWS-led government, although local committees began appearing from 22 March 2001.The AWS itself was created from a diverse array of many small political parties. In the 2001 general election, PiS gained 44 (of 460) seats in the lower chamber of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) with 9.5% of votes. In 2002, Lech Kaczyński was elected mayor of Warsaw. He handed the party leadership to his twin brother Jarosław in 2003.

In coalition government: 2005–2007

In the 2005 general election, PiS took first place with 27.0% of votes, which gave it 155 out of 460 seats in the Sejm and 49 out of 100 seats in the Senate. It was almost universally expected that the two largest parties, PiS and Civic Platform (PO), would form a coalition government. The putative coalition parties had a falling out, however, related to a fierce contest for the Polish presidency. In the end, Lech Kaczyński won the second round of the presidential election on 23 October 2005 with 54.0% of the vote, ahead of Donald Tusk, the PO candidate.

After the 2005 elections, Jarosław should have become prime minister. However, in order to improve his brother's chances of winning the presidential election (the first round of which was scheduled two weeks after the parliamentary election), PiS formed a minority government headed by Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz as prime minister, an arrangement that eventually turned out to be unworkable. In July 2006, PiS formed a coalition government with the agrarian populist Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland and the nationalist League of Polish Families, headed by Jarosław Kaczyński. In September 2006 the coalition was abruptly ended after the leftist Samoobrona protested Kaczyński's decision to send additional Polish troops to Afghanistan. PiS faced a threat of early election and sought to replace Samoobrona with the Polish People's Party. However, after a senior aide of Kaczyński was filmed secretly trying to bribe a Samoobrona MP to defect to PiS, Jarosław Kalinowski, the leader of the Polish People's Party, accused PiS of corruption and ruled out a coalition. Later, in October 2006, PiS was able to restore its coalition government with Samoobrona and LPR, and defeat the motion for early elections.

In the 2006 Polish local elections that took place in November 2006, PiS narrowly lost the contest for the first place with Civic Platform. However, the coalition partners of Law and Justice, Samoobrona and LPR, lost roughly two-thirds of their supports in the elections, questioning the stability of the coalition. The coalition collapsed after Lepper was dismissed from his position as Deputy Prime Minister on 9 July 2007 over suspicions that he was involved in a corruption scandal. It was then claimed that the Central Anticorruption Bureau (accused of being led by PiS) organized a sting operation against Lepper; PiS dismissed all of their ministers from the government after the affair, effectively ending the coalition. On 6 September 2007, the Sejm was dissolved and the 2007 snap election was called.

In opposition: 2007–2015

In the 2007 general election, PiS managed to secure 32.1% of votes. Although an improvement over its showing from 2005, the results were nevertheless a defeat for the party, as Civic Platform (PO) gathered 41.5%. The party won 166 out of 460 seats in the Sejm and 39 seats in Poland's Senate. The two partners of PiS from the 2006-2007, Samoobrona and LPR, fell below 5% and lost all theirs seats, despite polling around 5% shortly before the election. In 2009, the government coalition led by Civic Platform and Polish People's Party charged Mariusz Kamiński, the head of the Central Anticorruption Bureau, with abuse of power in connection to the sting operation against Lepper.

On 10 April 2010, its former leader Lech Kaczyński died in the 2010 Polish Air Force Tu-154 crash. Jarosław Kaczyński became the sole leader of the party. He was the presidential candidate in the 2010 elections. In the 2010 election, Jarosław gathered 46.99% of the vote, losing to Civic Platform candidate Bronislaw Komorowski, who won with 53.01%.

In majority government: 2015–2023

The party won the 2015 parliamentary election, this time with an outright majority—something no Polish party had done since the fall of communism. In the normal course of events, this should have made Jarosław Kaczyński prime minister for a second time. However, Beata Szydło, perceived as being somewhat more moderate than Kaczyński, had been tapped as PiS's candidate for prime minister.

The party supported controversial reforms carried out by the Hungarian Fidesz party, with Jarosław Kaczyński declaring in 2011 that "a day will come when we have a Budapest in Warsaw". PiS's 2015 victory prompted creation of a cross-party opposition movement, the Committee for the Defence of Democracy (KOD). Law and Justice has Proposed 2017 judicial reforms, which according to the party were meant to improve efficiency of the justice system, sparked protest as they were seen as undermining judicial independence. While these reforms were initially unexpectedly vetoed by President Duda, he later signed them into law. In 2017, the European Union began an Article 7 infringement procedure against Poland due to a "clear risk of a serious breach" in the rule of law and fundamental values of the European Union.

The party has caused what constitutional law scholar Wojciech Sadurski termed a "constitutional breakdown" by packing the Constitutional Court with its supporters, undermining parliamentary procedure, and reducing the president's and prime minister's offices in favour of power being wielded extra-constitutionally by party leader Jarosław Kaczyński. After eliminating constitutional checks, the government then moved to curtail the activities of NGOs and independent media, restrict freedom of speech and assembly, and reduce the qualifications required for civil service jobs in order to fill these positions with party loyalists. The media law was changed to give the governing party control of the state media, which was turned into a partisan outlet, with dissenting journalists fired from their jobs. Due to these political changes, Poland has been termed an "illiberal democracy", "plebiscitarian authoritarianism", or "velvet dictatorship with a façade of democracy".

The party won reelection in the 2019 parliamentary election. With 44% of the popular vote, Law and Justice received the highest vote share by any party since Poland returned to democracy in 1989, but lost its majority in the Senate.

In opposition: 2023–present

The United Right alliance placed first for the third straight election and won a plurality of seats but fell short of a Sejm majority. The opposition, consisting of the Civic Coalition, Third Way, and The Left, achieved a combined total vote of 54%, managing to form a majority coalition government. Although PiS would be unable to govern on its own, the Polish president Andrzej Duda stated his intention to re-appoint the incumbent Mateusz Morawiecki as prime minister due to the existing albeit unofficial convention of nominating a member of the winning party. The four opposition parties criticized Duda's decision as a delay tactic. The opposition parties subsequently signed a coalition agreement on 10 November, de facto taking over control of the Sejm, and agreed to nominate former prime minister and European Council President Donald Tusk as their candidate. Morawiecki's new cabinet, dubbed "two-week government" and "zombie government" by the media due to its anticipated short-livedness, was sworn in on 27 November 2023. As expected, the Morawiecki's government was defeated in the Sejm on 11 December 2023, effectively ending its tenure.

The party's endorsed candidate, Karol Nawrocki, won the 2025 Polish presidential election in an upset victory.

On 7 March 2026, Przemysław Czarnek was named as the party's candidate for the office of Prime Minister for the Next Polish parliamentary election.

On 14 March 2024, the President appointed a new composition of the National Electoral Commission (PKW), selected by the Sejm in December 2023. While Sylwester Marciniak remained the chairman of the PKW, a position he held since 11 February 2020 and Wojciech Sych as his deputy, seven other members were recommended by different parties in parliament: KO recommended Konrad Składowski and Ryszard Balicki, PiS recommended Mirosław Suski and Arkadiusz Pikulik, PSL recommended Maciej Kliś, PL2050 recommended Paweł Gieras, and Lewica recommended Ryszard Kalisz.

On 29 August, the PKW ruled 5:3 to penalize PiS by refusing to return 10.8 million PLN for 36 million designated to it via party subsidy, alleging the party misused 3.6 million PLN of their provided campaign funds in the 2023 parliamentary election. Despite PiS appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court issued no verdict within the 60-day deadline. The party appealed to its members and supporters for financial aid in donations. The PKW tied in a vote on 23 September regarding whether the committee recognizes the Supreme Court as valid considering the ongoing constitutional crisis. Further penalizations by the PKW on 18 November occurred thereafter, with the Commission ruling 5:4 to deprive PiS of its entire 75 million PLN subsidy for the three next years. PiS likewise appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, which the Supreme Court ruled invalid on 11 December, obligating the PKW to return PiS its subsidy. The Commission voted 5:4 to adjourn the meeting on 16 December without recognizing the Supreme Court or its ruling. On 30 December, a re-vote was held on the matter of whether it recognizes the Supreme Court, ruling 4:3 in favor of recognizing its verdict on this matter, and accepting the Supreme Court's decision to return the funds to PiS. Subsequently, the matter was relayed to the Ministry of Finance, in charge of granting subsidies.

Breakaways

In January 2010, a breakaway faction led by Jerzy Polaczek split from the party to form Poland Plus. Its seven members of the Sejm came from the centrist, economically liberal wing of the party. On 24 September 2010, the group was disbanded, with most of its Sejm members, including Polaczek, returning to Law and Justice.

On 16 November 2010, MPs Joanna Kluzik-Rostkowska, Elżbieta Jakubiak and Paweł Poncyljusz, and MEPs Adam Bielan and Michał Kamiński formed a new political group, Poland Comes First (Polska jest Najważniejsza). Kamiński claimed that the Law and Justice party had been taken over by far-right extremists. The breakaway party formed following dissatisfaction with the direction and leadership of Kaczyński.

On 4 November 2011, MEPs Zbigniew Ziobro, Jacek Kurski, and Tadeusz Cymański were ejected from the party, after Ziobro urged the party to split further into two separate parties – centrist and nationalist – with the three representing the nationalist faction. Ziobro's supporters, most of whom were on the right wing of the party, formed a new group in Parliament called Solidary Poland, leading to their expulsion, too. United Poland was formed as a formally separate party in March 2012, but has not threatened Law and Justice in opinion polls.

United Poland which would later become Sovereign Poland merged with Law and Justice on 12 October 2024 during PiS congress in Przysucha.

Base of support

Like Civic Platform, but unlike the fringe parties to the right, Law and Justice originated from the anti-communist Solidarity trade union (which is a major cleavage in Polish politics), which was not a theocratic organisation. Solidarity's leadership wanted to back Law and Justice in 2005, but was held back by the union's last experience of party politics, in backing Solidarity Electoral Action.

Today, the party enjoys great support among working class constituencies and union members. Groups that vote for the party include miners, farmers, shopkeepers, unskilled workers, the unemployed, and pensioners. With its left-wing approach toward economics, the party attracts voters who feel that economic liberalisation and European integration have left them behind. The party's core support derives from older, religious people who value conservatism and patriotism. PiS voters are usually located in rural areas and small towns. The strongest region of support is the southeastern part of the country. Voters without a university degree tend to prefer the party more than college-educated voters do.

Regionally, it has more support in regions of Poland that were historically part of western Galicia-Lodomeria and Congress Poland. Since 2015, the borders of support are not as clear as before and party enjoys support in western parts of country, especially these deprived ones. Large cities in all regions are more likely to vote for a more liberal party like PO or .N. Still, PiS receives good support from poor and working class areas in large cities.

Based on this voter profile, Law and Justice forms the core of the conservative post-Solidarity bloc, along with the League of Polish Families and Solidarity Electoral Action, as opposed to liberal conservative post-Solidarity bloc of Civic Platform. The most prominent feature of PiS voters was their emphasis on decommunisation.

David Ost distinguishes three main voters groups that form the base of Law and Justice's support. The first group are conservative Catholics, which support efforts to empower the Church and embrace anti-progressive, conservative social norms. The second group are secular intellectuals which are committed to "Polishness" and an enhanced international position of Poland; they support PiS to push back against the influence of the European Union, which they regard as a tool for Western domination. The third group are the working-class and poor voters that support PiS because of its economic policies which address the economic insecurity and wealth inequality of Poland. The workers that are particularly supportive of PiS are industrial workers and unionized labor, "where classic labor traditions are strongest." These workers also tend to be culturally conservative, which further aligns them with PiS.

Ideology

The party is commonly placed on the right wing of the political spectrum. Many observers have also classified it as a far-right party, while others placed it on the centre-right of the political spectrum. The party's economic ideology has been described as left-wing, or left-leaning. It has also been described as left-authoritarian, as it represents "left-wing positions on economic policy combined with authoritarian, conservative and nationalist positions on cultural policy issues". It combines conservative, egalitarian and populist elements in its ideology. It is considered to combine policies from the right and left.

On foreign policy, PiS is Atlanticist and less supportive of European integration than Civic Platform. The party is Soft Eurosceptic and opposes a federal Europe, especially the Euro currency. In its campaigns, it argues that the European Union should "benefit Poland and not the other way around". It is a member of the anti-federalist European Conservatives and Reformists Party, having previously been a part of the Alliance for Europe of the Nations and, before that, the European People's Party. Although it has some elements of Christian democracy, it is not a Christian democratic party.

Early ideology

The ideological roots of Law and Justice go back to the late 1980s to a Christian-democratic and nationalist wing of the Solidarity movement. The party derives from a dissident faction of Solidarity which felt alienated from the economically liberal policies of the post-communist Polish establishment. This faction was centered around Jarosław Kaczyński as well as President Lech Wałęsa, and was powerful, albeit briefly, in the early 1990s when the capitalist transition was in its early stages. However, it suddenly lost all influence when Kaczyński's party, Centre Agreement, failed to reach the newly established 5% electoral threshold in the 1993 Polish parliamentary election. This led the political movement that would later form PiS to spend the rest of the 1990s with only marginal political influence. It slowly started to re-establish itself in the late 1990s, as this period marked the strongest and most persistent wave of public dissatisfaction with economic liberalism and corruption.

For the first years after its foundation, Law and Justice was characterized as a moderate, single-issue party narrowly focused on the issue of 'law and order', appealing to voters concerned about corruption and high crime rates. In its 2002 assessment of Poland, the Immigration and Nationality Directorate led by the UK government described Law and Justice as "basically a law and order party". In 2003, German political scientist Nikolaus Werz classified Law and Justice as a centrist, law-and-order party that "advocates a strong state, the fight against corruption and the tightening of criminal law". Werz contrasted the moderation of PiS with the radicalism of League of Polish Families, which he described as a nationalist and 'Catholic-fundamentalist' party. In 2003, political scientists Wojciech Sokół and Marek Żmigrodzki classified PiS as Christian democratic.

Initially, the party was broadly pro-market, although less so than the Civic Platform. It had adopted the social market economy rhetoric similar to that of western European Christian democratic parties. In the 2005 election, the party shifted to the protectionist left on economics. As prime minister, Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz was more economically liberal than the Kaczyńskis, advocating a position closer to Civic Platform. According to Michał Krzyżanowski and Natalia Krzyżanowska, the 2000s PiS was "right-centrist and Christian-democratic", and described its core tenets as political Catholicism, strong conservatism, anti-liberalism, nationalism, Euroscepticism, and socio-economic welfare protectionism.

Shift towards modern program

In 2005, Law and Justice made Civic Platform its main ideological opponent despite their previous closeness - Law and Justice posed a difference between Civic Platform's "liberal Poland" and its "social Poland". The former was marked by economic liberalism, austerity, deregulation and "serving the rich". In contrast, Law and Justice stressed its "social" character, pledging policies that would help the poor. The party attacked Civic Platform's flat tax proposal and advocated a much more active role of the state in the economy. Law and Justice also made "an offer to the left", stressing its economically left-wing policies.

The party's pivot towards the economic left led the leader of far-left Samoobrona, Andrzej Lepper, to endorse Lech Kaczyński in the 2005 Polish presidential election, arguing that left-wing voters must vote against the neoliberalism of Civic Platform; Lepper also justified his decision on the basis of Kaczyński's declarations in support of funding social welfare, fighting unemployment and taking a tougher stance towards the European Union. Law and Justice had undergone a radical ideological change, abandoning its centrist position towards an increasingly populist and nationalist political orientation. This change was also marked by a pivot on the party's position towards the European Union - initially strongly supportive of European integration, PiS became a Eurosceptic party that criticized the EU from nationalist, protectionist, and anti-neoliberal perspectives.

Law and Justice then started radicalizing and broadening its program following its victory in the 2005 Polish parliamentary election. In 2006, Chicago Tribune wrote that "President Kaczynski's Law and Justice Party ran on a populist reform platform but veered sharply to the right after its victory". The same year, Polish journalist Krzysztof Bobiński wrote: "When they started out, the Kaczynski brothers were fairly mainstream ... but now they've gotten into bed with the League of Polish Families and Samoobrona. They are moving to the right, and it's a pretty intolerant right."

According to Polish political scientists Krzysztof Kowalczyk and Jerzy Sielski, Law and Justice had moved from a single-issue party in 2001 to a staunchly and broadly conservative one by 2006. They noted that by 2006 the party started calling for a "conservative revolution" that would restore traditional values to Poland, and gradually adopted right-wing populist rhetoric characterized by a "somewhat leftist" economical policy to undercut the appeal of far-right anti-capitalist League of Polish Families (LPR), agrarian socialist Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (Samoobrona) and the agrarian Polish People's Party (PSL). The populist pivot of PiS is credited with causing the electoral blowout of Samoobrona and LPR in the 2007 Polish parliamentary election.

Party factions

The party has two factions that are engaged in power struggle for the dominance in the party — the Scouts (Polish: Harcerze), and the Butter-Makers (Polish: Maślarze). The Scouts represent the political environment of former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, and the name refers to the fact that many members of the faction were in the Scouting Association of the Republic in their youth. The Butter-Makers do not have a single leader. The faction's name was coined by one of the Scouts, PiS MEP Waldemar Buda, and refers to a social media post by Bocheński in which he expressed outrage about being offered German butter on a LOT Polish Airlines flight; under popular pressure, LOT published an explanation stating that it supports Polish producers, but uses the catering services of destination airports for logistical reasons, which in Bocheński's case was Frankfurt.

The Scouts are described as centre-right and technocratic. They believe that PiS must focus on investing in infrastructure, energy, and economic growth, and de-emphasize "culture wars". The Scouts are strongly critical of Hard Eurosceptic elements in PiS, warning against "the Polexit tone" and expressing the belief that the supporters of radical party members such as Zbigniew Ziobro cannot be trusted to govern responsibly. They are critical of Jarosław Kaczyński, and hope to take over the party once Kaczyński steps down. Their plan is to consolidate PiS into a centre-right, moderately conservative party. The members of this faction include Piotr Müller, Waldemar Buda, Olga Semeniuk-Patkowska, Krzysztof Szczucki, Anna Gembicka, Michał Dworczyk, Paweł Jabłoński, Marcin Horała and Janusz Cieszyński.

The Butter-Makers postulate a sharp turn to the right. They want to distance Poland from the EU and only align with it for Polish self-interest; they are also strongly critical of COVID restrictions introduced under Morawiecki, believing that they were excessive. They are described as "aggressive culture-war figures" and include people such as Przemysław Czarnek, known for his crusade against "leftist ideology" in Polish schools. The Butter-Makers want PiS to turn to the right sharply enough to attract the voters of the Confederation of the Polish Crown, and others who became disillusioned with Law and Justice and drifted towards far-right movements. They have been described as hardline and nationalist. Key representatives of this faction are Patryk Jaki, Przemysław Czarnek, Jacek Sasin, and Tobiasz Bocheński.

There are also two factions that are now considered historical — the Monks (Polish: Zakoniarze), and the Ziobrists (Polish: Ziobryści). The Monks were the "old guard" of the party and were also known as the "Order of the Centre Agreement", as it referred to the closest environment of Jarosław Kaczyński and consisted of people who were members of the Centre Agreement, a 1990s party led by Kaczyński brothers that preceded PiS. People who used to be the members of this faction, such as Mariusz Błaszczak, are considered to have been absorded by the Butter-Makers. Ziobryści were, in turn, supporters of the former Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro, and included the members of his party Sovereign Poland. Members of this faction included Jacek Ozdoba, Sebastian Kaleta, and Patryk Jaki. They have since become a part of the Butter-Makers instead.

Political associations

In June 2026, the party's divide between the Scouts and Butter-Makers has been formalized as two political associations within Law and Justice emerged — Rozwój Plus led by Morawiecki, and Po Pierwsze Polska led by Sasin. Rozwój Plus represents the political environment of the Scouts, while Po Pierwsze Polska represents the Butter-Makers. On 15 April, Morawiecki created Rozwój Plus, with the stated goal of seeking dialogue and broad agreement with other political movements, supporting Polish socioeconomic development, and creating a patriotic camp beyond party lines. Kaczyński was initially hostile towards the association, and accused Morawiecki of breaking away from the party. However, on 20 April, Kaczyński declared that he accepted the existence of Rozwój Polska on condition that it functions only within Law and Justice; he also announced a creation of an Expert Council for the party of which Rozwój Polska members would become a part of. On 9 June, Sasin founded Po Pierwsze Polska, a political association within PiS, with preserving party unity and supporting the candidacy of Przemysław Czarnek as its stated goals. Its creation is considered a response to Morawiecki's own move. Morawiecki's Rozwój Plus consists of over 40 PiS MPs, while Po Pierwsze Polska has about 100 to 110 PiS MPs as its members.

Platform

Economy

The party supports a state-guaranteed minimum social safety net and extensive state intervention in the economy, and argues that a "more socially sensitive and less market-dominated" economic system is necessary. It advocates progressive taxation that would redistribute the wealth from the wealthy to the poor, and it supports a large-scale social housing program. The party promised and implemented tax and welfare benefits to married couples and family. It also adheres to the principles of economic nationalism, postulating state control over key sectors of the economy. It seeks to increase healthcare spending to 6% of the Polish GDP, and nationalize hospital debts. During the 2015 election campaign, it proposed tax rebates related to the number of children in a family, as well as a reduction of the VAT rate (while keeping a variation between individual types of VAT rates). In 2019, the lowest personal income tax threshold was decreased from 18% to 17%. Its policies have been described as redistributive, and that its 2015–2023 government marked "the first time in over two decades that a government had taken steps to curb the neoliberal dismantling of social services" in Poland.

Law and Justice is described as state-interventionist and anti-privatisation, opposing flat tax and favoring a welfare state based on extensively developed state-run health service. In its 2006-2007 government, it committed to expanding welfare spending and the role of the state in the economy, often at expense of foreign investors and the European Commission. It halted the construction of foreign-owned supermarkets and prevent the existing ones from opening on Sundays in an effort to prevent monopolization. In 2006, it also set up commissions to investigate and scrutinize sale of Polish banks to foreign entities after 1989, and to investigate the role of the Polish Central Bank in privatization. In 2019, the party introduced a bill proposing a financial benefit in the form of a 13th pension, intended for retirees and pensioners receiving the minimum old-age pension on 1 May 2019. And subsequently on an annual basis starting in 2020. A 14th pension was introduced on 21 January 2021 and is now paid out with 13th pension.

PiS opposes cutting social welfare spending, and also proposed the introduction of a system of state-guaranteed housing loans. The party also opposes foreign ownership of crucial industries and businesses, and proposed buying back the largest convenience store chain in Poland, Żabka, from its foreign owners. It also supports state provided universal health care. PiS has been also described as statist, protectionist, solidarist, and interventionist. It also holds agrarianist views. Given the redistributive and protectionist agenda of the party as well as its focus on welfare and nationalization, political scientists classify Law and Justice as economically left-wing. Stephen Park Turner likewise classified it as having "economically leftist policies on trade and welfare." It has also been described as economically left-leaning by the Centre for European Reform, Reuters, and The Routledge Handbook of East European Politics. Political economist Cédric M. Koch wrote that PiS combines "political communitarianism with neo-socialist economic views".

National political structures

PiS has presented a project for constitutional reform including, among others: allowing the president the right to pass laws by decree (when prompted to do so by the Cabinet), a reduction of the number of members of the Sejm and Senat, and removal of constitutional bodies overseeing the media and monetary policy. PiS advocates increased criminal penalties. It postulates aggressive anti-corruption measures (including creation of an Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), open disclosure of the assets of politicians and important public servants), as well as broad and various measures to smooth the working of public institutions.

PiS is a strong supporter of lustration (lustracja), a verification system created ostensibly to combat the influence of the Communist era security apparatus in Polish society. While current lustration laws require the verification of those who serve in public offices, PiS wants to expand the process to include university professors, lawyers, journalists, managers of large companies, and others performing "public functions". Those found to have collaborated with the security service, according to the party, should be forbidden to practice in their professions.

Diplomacy and defence

The party is in favour of strengthening the Polish Army through diminishing bureaucracy and raising military expenditures, especially for modernisation of army equipment. The party supports Polish membership in NATO, arguing that Poland should fulfill its military obligations and aspire to become one of the countries that shape NATO policy. In its 2001 program, the party called for maintaining compulsory military service, but shortening it as much as possible, writing: "PiS will strive to shorten the duration of compulsory military service to the extent possible, so that it is limited to the conscript training process. Universal military service should be imposed on the best conscripts, raising the level of the reserves and creating appropriate social role models. We will support the development of an attractive military training programme for students and a military class programme in secondary schools, together with an appropriate incentive system."

Later the party abandoned its support of military draft - it planned to introduce a fully professional army and end conscription by 2012; in August 2008, compulsory military service was abolished in Poland. It is also in favour of participation of Poland in foreign military missions led by the United Nations, NATO and United States, in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. The party moderated its policies in the wake of its coalition with far-left Samoobrona and far-right LPR in 2006, as both parties demanded withdrawal of Polish troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and distancing Poland from the European Union.

Ever since its founding in 2001, Law and Justice had a catalogue of complex reforms in the sphere of defence and national security, which it also connected to economic matters. The party postulates a national security law that would expand the legal capabilities of special and public security services. Law and Justice proposed monitoring key industries such as energy, telecommunications, banking as well as stock exchange, including taking note of the ownership situation in these economic sectors and the main companies operating in these fields. The national security act and extensive monitoring of the economy were to provide the basis for the Polish government to safeguard economic security by partial or complete compulsory state buyouts of companies "whose operation on the market creates a direct or potential threat to national security". In this way, the party connected its anti-privatization views with its law-and-order proposals.

PiS is eurosceptic, although the party supports integration with the European Union on terms beneficial for Poland. It supports economic integration and tightening cooperation in areas of energy security and military operations, but is sceptical about closer political integration. It is against the formation of a European superstate or federation. PiS is in favour of a strong political and military alliance between Poland and the United States. In 2006, Kaczyński spoke of the EU: "My opinion of the EU is the following: A super state which polarizes countries' areas of competence but which at the same time is rather helpless because it only has a symbolic budget... The EU is an artificial creation." In the European Parliament, it is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists, a group founded in 2009 to challenge the prevailing pro-federalist ethos of the European Parliament and address the perceived democratic deficit existing at a European level.

Social policies

The party's views on social issues are much more traditionalist than those of social conservative parties in other European countries, and its social views reflect those of the Christian right. PiS has been described to hold right-wing populist views. The party presents itself as a champion of Catholicism, and in accordance with the Catholic social teaching, it opposes euthanasia and legal recognition of homosexual couples. It also supports strengthening restrictions on abortion. However, the party also took positions that conflicted with the Church's teaching, such as favoring the death penalty or demonstrating flexible stances on stem cell research and vitro fertilization.

The party strongly promotes itself as a pro-family party and encourages married couples to have more children. Prior to 2005 elections, it promised to build three million inexpensive housing units as a way to help young couples start a family. Once in government, it passed legislation lengthening parental leaves.

In 2017, the PiS government commenced the so-called "500+" programme under which all parents residing in Poland receive an unconditional monthly payment of 500 PLN for each second and subsequent child (the 500 PLN support for the first child being linked to income). It also revived the idea of a housing programme based on state-supported construction of inexpensive housing units.

Also in 2017, the party's MPs passed a law that bans most retail trade on Sundays on the premise that workers will supposedly spend more time with their families.

The party is anti-abortion and supports further restrictions on Poland's abortion laws which are already one of the most restrictive in Europe. PiS opposes abortion resulting from foetal defects which is currently allowed until specific foetal age.

In 2016, PiS supported legislation to ban abortion under all circumstances, and investigate miscarriages. After the black Protests the legislation was withdrawn.

In October 2020, the Constitutional Court ruled that one of three circumstances (foetal defects) is unconstitutional. However, many constitutionalists argue that this judgement is invalid.

Structure

Party leaders

Vice-chairmen:

Mariusz Błaszczak

Joachim Brudziński

Tobiasz Bocheński

Przemysław Czarnek

Patryk Jaki

Anna Krupka

Antoni Macierewicz

Mateusz Morawiecki

Beata Szydło

Elżbieta Witek

Zbigniew Ziobro

Treasurer:

Henryk Kowalczyk

Spokesperson:

Rafał Bochenek

Party discipline spokesman:

Karol Karski

Chairman of the Executive Committee:

Piotr Milowański

President of the Parliamentary Club:

Mariusz Błaszczak

Election results

European Parliament

*Currently 16: Zdzisław Krasnodębski is elected from the PiS register, but not a member of the party, Mirosław Piotrowski left PiS (08.10.2014), Marek Jurek is a member of Right Wing of the Republic.

Representation in regional assemblies

Table last updated on 1 October 2025