WARSAW - Poles began voting Sunday in a polarizing election the governing populists look set to win after a flurry of welfare give-aways and attacks on western values but their majority could be at risk.

The opposition received an unexpected last-minute boost when author Olga Tokarczuk, a known government critic who won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, urged Poles to choose wisely "between democracy and authoritarianism," calling the vote the "most important" since Poland threw off communism in 1989.

In office since 2015 and led by ex-premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party has sought to mobilize poorer rural voters by coupling family values with a popular new child allowance, tax breaks for low-income earners and hikes to pensions and the minimum wage.

Widely regarded as Poland's powerbroker, Kaczynski has also stoked deep social division by attacking minorities and rejecting Western liberal values, all with the tacit blessing of Poland's influential Catholic Church which holds sway over rural voters.

Kaczynski is among several populist leaders in the European Union favoring greater national sovereignty over the federalism championed by powerhouses France and Germany.

"The PiS takes care of workers, they raised the minimum wage and created the 500+ child allowance," Michal, a 34-year-old Warsaw electrician and PiS supporter told AFP after voting in Warsaw.

"In foreign policy, the PiS is standing up for Poland, not just blindly agreeing to what Germany or France want," he added, declining to provide his full name.

Supported by outgoing EU Council President Donald Tusk -- Kaczynski's arch-rival -- the opposition Citizen's Coalition (KO) draws mainly on urban voters upset by the PiS's divisive politics, judicial reforms threatening the rule of law, graft scandals and monopolization of public media.

"I voted for democracy, to safeguard the future of my grandchildren," Jadwiga Sperska, a 64-year-old working pensioner and KO supporter, said outside a Warsaw polling station.

"The current government's direction could lead us out of the EU," she added. -AFP