ISTANBUL 

About one in four Poles say they would volunteer to join the army or organizations supporting the military if Poland is attacked, according to a new survey by research firm IBRiS, TVP World reported on Friday.

The poll, conducted on Oct. 10-11 for the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, found that 25.6% of respondents would enlist voluntarily, while 20.4% said they would wait to be drafted into the armed forces.

Another 22.3% said they would move their families to a safer place within Poland, and 12.7% would attempt to flee abroad. In contrast, 36.5% said they would try to protect their families where they live, while 15.2% said they would do nothing. Fewer than 5% were undecided about their reaction.

The survey showed a marked political divide in readiness to defend the country. Supporters of opposition parties and undecided voters were significantly more likely to volunteer than backers of the governing Civic Coalition bloc.

Among those who said they would enlist, 33% were undecided voters and 29% supported opposition parties, mainly men in their fifties from small towns with primary or vocational education backgrounds.

Many had previously voted for the far-right Confederation alliance or presidential candidates Grzegorz Braun and Adrian Zandberg.

Respondents who said they would wait to be conscripted were mostly men over age 30, rural residents, and highly educated voters who supported the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party in last year’s parliamentary election or far-right candidate Slawomir Mentzen in this year’s presidential race.

By contrast, those who said they would leave Poland in the event of war tended to be supporters of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition and centrist presidential candidate Rafal Trzaskowski. This group was predominantly women in their forties, rural residents, and university graduates.

The survey was conducted on a sample of 1,067 respondents and comes amid heightened concern over regional security following Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.