Poland's conservatives have only been back in power for a few weeks but they are already sowing alarm in the EU member state by trying to take control of any organ that could keep them in check.

The governing Law and Justice (PiS) party that won the October general election after eight years in opposition wasted no time in replacing the heads of the country's secret services.

Poland's new right-wing prime minister on Wednesday took aim at a hotly contested EU program for the redistribution of refugees around the bloc, insisting that some members were using it to burden others.

"Attempts to export a problem that certain countries have themselves created without the input of other members cannot be called solidarity," Prime Minister Beata Szydlo told parliament in a keynote policy address ahead of a confidence vote her majority Law and Justice (PiS) government is expected to win with ease.

Poland's conservative Law and Justice party won a landslide in Sunday's general election on anti-refugee rhetoric and welfare promises, ending eight years of centrist rule in a victory that risks inflaming tensions with the EU and Russia.

The euroskeptic PiS led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski garnered an outright majority, according to projections from partial results by local television channels, ousting leftist parties from parliament for the first time since the fall of communism in 1989.

Poles began voting Sunday in a general election expected to end eight years of centrist government, with surveys showing the euroskeptic conservatives firmly ahead after running a campaign of anti-refugee rhetoric and welfare promises.

The opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party led by controversial ex-premier Jaroslaw Kaczynski commands an 8-to-12 point poll lead over the liberal, pro-European Civic Platform (PO) of Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz. Analysts say the PiS could even end up governing alone.

Beating drums, miners parade a coffin for Poland's centrist government through the gritty streets of Ruda Slaska, a mining town left behind by a quarter century of explosive growth since communism's demise.

As rock-bottom coal prices threaten miners' jobs, the Solidarity trade union is accusing Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz and her Civic Platform (PO) party of breaking promises to prop up state-owned mines.

Poland's divided attitudes to the European refugee crisis were laid bare during a televised debate between political candidates Tuesday, ahead of a general election the conservative opposition is tipped to win.

Candidates from eight parties faced off on how Poland should approach the unprecedented influx into the EU of refugees and migrants fleeing war and unrest in the Middle East and North Africa, as the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party makes significant gains in opinion polls.

Thousands of migrants sought their way through a chaotic maze of rumor and proliferating border controls in the western Balkans on Saturday.

In the latest chapter in the EU's escalating refugee crisis, Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia tussled over how to cope with a wave of refugees desperate to reach northern Europe.

Several dozen migrants entered Croatia from Serbia early Wednesday, the first to enter the EU country after Hungary sealed its borders to thousand of people entering every day, an AFP correspondent saw.

The group of mostly Syrian or Afghan men, women and children crossed the border -- which was marked by nothing more than a stone -- early Wednesday morning and were picked up by police as they walked across a field.

NATO member Poland on Monday signed a deal on military cooperation with non-member Sweden amid concerns raised by increased Russian military activity in the Baltic. 

"Once a sea of peace, the Baltic has become a sea of danger," Polish Defense Minister Tomasz Siemoniak told reporters at a joint press conference in Warsaw with Swedish counterpart Peter Hultqvist.

Polish Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz said Thursday she was against any quota plan to share migrants across the 28-member European Union but was open to raising the numbers Warsaw took in.

The EU has been overwhelmed by the massive crisis as hundreds of thousands of people try to reach the bloc by sea and land after fleeing conflicts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.