Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk's ruling centre-right Civic Platform (PO) is tipped to win a second consecutive term when Poles vote in a parliamentary election on Sunday.
Here is a timeline of Polish politics since 2005:
Oct. 23, 2005 – Conservative Warsaw Mayor Lech Kaczynski beats free market champion Donald Tusk in presidential election.
— Kaczynski’s Law and Justice party wins the parliamentary election and Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz becomes prime minister.
May 5, 2006 – Law and Justice forms a coalition government with the ultra-nationalist League of Polish Families and rural-based populist Self-Defence party.
July 14 – Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski is sworn in by his twin brother to replace Marcinkiewicz, who resigns.
Sept. 21 – Kaczynski kicks Self-Defence party out of the government, calling its leader Andrzej Lepper a "rabble rouser", but a deal is reached later to save the coalition.
July 9, 2007 – Prime Minister Kaczynski expels Lepper from the cabinet over a corruption investigation, prompting weeks of bitter infighting.
Aug. 13 – Prime Minister Kaczynski sacks ministers from junior coalition parties, tearing the government apart.
Sept. 7 – Parliament votes to end its term two years early, making an election necessary.
Oct. 21 – The Kaczynskis’ Law and Justice party loses parliamentary election to opposition Civic Platform. Future prime minister Donald Tusk promises to improve ties with Russia.
Aug. 12, 2008 – President Lech Kaczynski travels to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to show solidarity during the ex-Soviet republic’s brief war with Russia.
Nov. 21, 2009 – Prime Minister Tusk says he aims to strip President Kaczynski of his veto powers in a constitutional revamp designed to end institutional conflicts that he says have blocked important reforms.
— Kaczynski, Tusk’s arch rival, has vetoed a number of government bills, including media, health and pensions reforms, citing their impact on ordinary workers.
Jan. 9, 2010 – President Lech Kaczynski criticises the government for prolonging gas negotiations with Russia and deepening Poland’s already-heavy reliance on Russian gas.
April 10 – President Kaczynski, his wife Maria and 94 others, mostly top officials, die when their Tupolev plane crashes near Smolensk airport in western Russia. They were planning to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet forces in Katyn forest during World War Two.
— Bronislaw Komorowski automatically takes over as Poland’s acting president in his capacity as speaker of parliament. Komorowski has already been declared the presidential candidate of the governing party, Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform.
April 26 – Jaroslaw Kaczynski says he will be the candidate of his Law and Justice party in the presidential election.
June 20 – Kacyznski wins a bigger-than-expected 36.5 percent of the vote in the first round of the election.
July 4 – Second and decisive round of presidential election in which Komorowski wins 53 percent of the vote, beating Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
May 28, 2011 – Visiting U.S. President Barack Obama pledges close U.S. cooperation with Poland on missile defence, the upgrading of its air defences and in developing shale gas and nuclear power to boost its energy security.
July 1 – Prime Minister Tusk promises "energetic engagement" as Poland takes over the rotating presidency of the EU and says the 27-country bloc is facing one of its most difficult moments.
July 29 – A Polish government commission says faulty airport equipment and poor communication by Russian ground staff contributed to the plane crash that killed the president.
