New left-wing Polish party rapidly rises in election surprise

“With 10 percent, I’m not sure, but with 15 percent there can’t be a coalition without me,’’ said Palikot, a lawmaker who broke away from Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party last year.

The centrist Civic Platform and the conservative Law and Justice party of former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski are ahead in the polls.

In just a few weeks, the new party has overtaken the Democratic Left Alliance, a long-established left-wing party whose base Palikot seems to be poaching, along with the agrarian Polish People’s Party, the current junior coalition partner.

His growing popularity appears to be due to frustration with the established parties, as well as growing support for gay rights and other liberal causes. Palikot says much of his support comes from younger Poles being mobilized to vote for the first time.

In an interview at his home in Warsaw, the 46-year-old laid out his vision, which centers on liberalizing both social and economic spheres. He said he wants to trim state regulations that stifle businesses and legalize a range of things - including marijuana - that he believes erode individual freedoms.

Some of his views are radical by the standards of Poland, a country where abortion remains illegal in most cases, where there is no legal recognition of gay partnerships, and where the Catholic Church still enjoys great influence in public life.

Palikot said if his group wins a good showing in Parliament, his first step will be seeking the removal of a crucifix that hangs in the assembly hall of the Sejm, the lower house - an opening move in a drive for greater separation of church and state.