Populists buoyed by Polish presidential election voting

Centrist and right-wing nationalist hopefuls contesting Poland’s presidential election runoff began a final fight for votes yesterday as the contest proved much narrower than opinion polls had predicted.

- ALASTAIR JAMIESON

A broad coalition government led by Donald Tusk swept to power in 2023, promising to mend ties with the European Union and undo judicial reforms implemented by the previous Law and Justice (PiS) rulers. However, Mr Tusk’s agenda has been stymied by the veto powers of the outgoing president, PiS ally Andrzej Duda.

Rafal Trzaskowski, from Mr Tusk’s ruling Civic Coalition (KO) and the mayor of Warsaw, narrowly beat Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the conservative-nationalist PiS, on Sunday, by 31.4 per cent to 29.5 per cent.

But a surge in support for far-right and anti-establishment candidates leaves the 1 June runoff on a knife-edge. An Opinia24 poll for private broadcaster TVN published after the first round gave Mr Trzaskowski 46 per cent in the runoff and Mr Nawrocki 44 per cent, with 10 per cent undecided or refusing to say.

“We have to talk to everyone, the most important thing is the arguments,” Mr Trzaskowski told reporters. “I’m glad that many young people went to the polls, but it’s a great challenge to convince them to vote for me.”