Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed victory for his center-right ruling Civic Platform in a parliamentary election Sunday that gives him a mandate to press on with cautious economic reforms. An exit poll showed Tusk's pro-business party was on course to win 39.6 percent of votes, short of an absolute majority but comfortably ahead of Jaroslaw Kaczynski's nationalist-conservative Law and Justice party on 30.1 percent. Kaczynski conceded defeat and the Peasants' Party, Tusk's junior coalition partner for the past four years, said it was ready to renew the alliance. Projections based on the exit poll, conducted by TNS OBOP for national television, showed the two parties would have enough seats to secure a majority in the Sejm, the lower house. “I wanted to thank all of those who voted for us and those who didn't because we will be together bearing responsibility for Poland for four more years,” Tusk said to cheers at his party's headquarters. Financial markets are expected to welcome the result, which points to four more years of relative political and economic stability in the European Union's largest eastern member state at a time of crisis in the euro zone. Poland was the only EU member state not to sink into recession during the 2008-09 global economic crisis.
