Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has been going on for almost a decade — yet for many in Europe, the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, changed everything. It was as if they suddenly realized that a war is going on right beside them. Perhaps nowhere is this truer than in Poland, where a host of issues related to Ukraine are major campaign themes ahead of the general election this October 15.

The country is currently governed by Jarosław Kaczyński’s far-right Law and Justice party (PiS), with Mateusz Morawiecki as prime minister. It has long pledged support for Ukraine’s defense, but in more recent months has stirred conflict over the economic fallout of the war. The biggest alternative is Donald Tusk’s neoliberal Civic Platform (PO), the main force in the Civic Coalition (KO). The left-wing coalition Lewica (The Left) is fighting for third place with Konfederacja, a party with libertarian and neofascist elements which is challenging PiS from a further right flank.

For Lewica, too, the war in Ukraine is an important context for the general election. Especially worth examining, from the international left’s perspective, are the positions of Lewica’s social democratic wing, known as Razem (Left Together).