Warsaw mayor set for election run-off

PRO-EU Warsaw Mayor Rafal ‘Trzaskowski is set to face nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential run-off on June 1, an exit poll showed after the first round, as the far-right made record advances.

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An overall victory for Trzaskowski would be a boost for the centrist government led by former European Council chief Donald Tusk, which has been at loggerheads with the current nationalist president.

Ever since Tusk’s coalition came to power in 2023, key government initia-tives have been blocked by vetoes from nationalist President Andrzej Duda of the Law and Justice party (PiS), who is not eligible to run again.

A victory for Nawrocki, who is backed by the PiS party, would likely extend the political deadlock and ana-lysts predict that fresh parliamentary elections may have to be called.

Trzaskowski was expected to get 31.2% of the vote and Nawrocki 29.7% in the first round, according to an Ipsos poll based on 90% of the votes.

Preliminary results were expected yesterday.