Poland's coal transition exemplifies Eastern Europe's distinctive pattern of political adaptation under pressure. As an environmental crisis intersecting with economic and identity challenges, coal phase-out in mining-dependent communities reveals how crises serve as both catalysts for transformation and moments to defend the status quo. This paper examines two lignite-dependent cities—Konin and Bełchatów—facing divergent transition trajectories despite similar economic dependencies, demonstrating how crisis operates as simultaneously disruptive and stabilizing force.

Drawing on interviews conducted in 2025 across both Law and Justice (2015-2023) and Civic Coalition administrations, the research challenges assumptions that progressive reform requires centre-left governance. Instead, three factors prove critical: strategic framing transcending ideological divides, circulation of new data mobilizing local support, and emergence of innovative activist repertoires. The findings reveal fundamental tensions in how power, legitimacy, and narratives of morality are constructed during environmental crisis. Health-based framing enables new coalitions while EU Just Transition funding creates material opportunities for local actors—yet these same mechanisms expose conflicts over justice, equity, and regional identity rooted in mining heritage.

Poland's experience demonstrates continuity and change in political adaptation: grassroots environmental mobilization flourishes paradoxically during democratic backsliding, echoing historical patterns where crises generate new repertoires of legitimation. The coal transition illuminates how Eastern Europe's recurrent experience of crisis, from communist-era industrialization through post-socialist transformation to contemporary polycrisis, continues informing political responses to uncertainty and reform, producing both breakdowns and adaptations in authority structures.