On the Knife’s Edge
Photograph of Warsaw Mayor on Liberal Presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski in Kościerzyna. Photo courtesy of Rex Features.
On 28 June, the first round of the Polish presidential elections finished, clearing the way for a second round to take place later in July.
Incumbent Andrzej Duda, a conservative who is backed by the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS), of which he used to be a member, faced off with Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski from the Liberal Civic Platform group.
However, with several independent and third-party campaigns, no candidate received a majority of the popular vote. Mr Duda ended the first round with over 43 per cent of the vote, while Mr Trzaskowski got another 39 per cent.
Szymon Hołownia, an independent candidate, garnered less than 14 per cent of the vote, followed by Krzysztof Bosak, from the nationalist Confederation group, with less than 7 per cent.
In the second round, Poles should unseat Mr Duda and the PiS from their long-held seats of power. The irreparable harm that the PiS has done to Polish democracy, the rule of law, and society should exclude them from leading their country any further.
While most legislative power lies with the Prime-Minister and the Sejm, the Polish parliament, the president reserves the power to veto legislation, making the office crucial to the PiS if it wants to make new sweeping legal and constitutional changes.
The way that this election was conducted exemplifies some of the best reasons to ditch the ruling party and Mr Duda.
The election was originally scheduled to take place in May but was delayed due to COVID-19 concerns. However, the PiS ignored public health and voter turnout worries and refused to move the date.
The PiS leadership only relented when a junior coalition partner joined the opposition, making a statement criticising the government’s approach to democratic reform and public health.
Accusations of anti-Semitism and homophobia plagued mr Duda’s campaign. In early June, Mr Duda came under fire when he made a speech saying that advocacy for LGBTQ rights as an ‘ideology…more destructive than communism’, as reported by the British Broadcasting Corporation.
The PiS has also been accused of trying to end the independent judiciary, by illegally sacking members of the country’s high court, with Supreme Court President Małgorzata Gersdorf saying that her country is becoming an ‘authoritarian state’.
In early 2019, the European Union, which remains incredibly popular in the country, took moves to sanction Poland’s voting rights in the group, due to the government’s attempts to suspend the rule of law.
After the first round’s results trickled in, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), an international organisation often tasked with election monitoring, released a report criticising the government and the Duda campaign.
According to the OSCE report, the state broadcaster, TVP, regularly broadcasted material with deep ‘xenophobic and anti-Semitic undertones’ and depicted Mr Trzaskowski as ‘a threat to Polish values and national interests’.
In an attempt to sure up his conservative base for the second round, Mr Duda has proposed a constitutional measure to forbid same-sex couples from adopting children, as reported by The Guardian.
The Duda campaign’s conduct and deeply-flawed policies should cause Poles to abandon the PiS and return the opposition to government.
Mr Trzaskowski, a protege of former Prime-Minister and European Council President Donald Tusk, who was expected to run in this year’s elected, but opted for a leadership position in the European People’s Party (see Article: Coming Home: Tusk).
Mr Trzaskowski was not the Civic Platform’s original candidate, but picked him after Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, dropped out due to falling poll numbers. However, Mr Trzaskowski quickly gained popularity after joining the ballot in May.
The Trzaskowski campaign focuses on repairing relations with Poland’s European partners, support for civil unions between same-sex couples, lifting on abortion restrictions, government backing for in-vitro fertilisation, and keeping in-place social welfare programmes, according to Euronews.
Mr Duda had hoped to avoid a second-round all together, a sign that he has already begun to lose some popular support due to his policies and his government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This election is a decisive moment in Polish and European politics. The PiS’s performance on 12 July, when the second round is due to take place, will determine whether Poland will drift towards a semi-authoritarian state with a media monopoly like that of Hungary, or whether it can move forward with its European partners.
July’s second round is still up in the air, with so many third-party and independent votes in play. The choice of how their country will march into the next decade is in the hands of the Polish voters.
Sources:
‘Poland presidential election heads for second round’, BBC News, British Broadcasting Corporation, 29 June 2020,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53215106
‘ODIHR SPECIAL ELECTION ASSESSMENT MISSION Republic of Poland – Presidential Election, 28 June 2020’. OSCE, Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, 28 June 2020,
https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/4/9/455728.pdf
‘Poland's president plans to forbid adoption by same-sex couples’. The Guardian, Guardian Media Group, 04 July 2020,
Hurst, Luke. ‘Poland presidential election 2020: Who is Rafał Trzaskowski?’. Euronews, Euronews SA, 30 June 2020,