Held on Sunday, July 12th, the second round of presidential elections in Poland did not create any sensation. A preliminary vote count has confirmed the victory – albeit by a whisker, the incumbent head of state Andrzej Duda.
a Spokesman for the ruling conservative nationalist party “Law and justice” (PiS) Andrzej Duda failed in a hard struggle to get around his opponent from the liberal camp, the Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, representing the “Civic platform” (PO).
After counting 99,87% of the ballots, Andrzej Duda scored 51,21% of the votes, and Rafal Trzaskowski – 48,79% of the votes.
They both became favorites in the first round of voting. Duda got 43.5% of votes, and Trzaskowski is 30.5%. Despite this substantial gap, the polls made it clear that in the second round, both candidates will go head to head.
If not pandemic, the situation could look different. Originally, the presidential elections were scheduled for may 10, but they had to move for the summer. And if the vote was held in a pre-planned period of time, Andrzej Duda, judging by the polls, easily would have won. Related COVID-19 economic problems of a few have undermined Duda, making his victory is not so absolute.
nevertheless, he has prevailed. Victory Duda for a few years, provides the ruling party control over most levers of power.
And this circumstance without much enthusiasm is perceived in many European capitals, where policy PiS see the erosion of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary. This policy in recent years has caused serious friction between Warsaw and the European Union.
In case of victory Trzaskowski there was a possibility that he could use the presidential veto to block the legislative program “Polovtsev”, and Poland would have found a more liberal and Pro-European image to their counterparts in the EU.
Trying to mobilize their supporters, on the eve of the second round Trzaskowski has labeled them a dilemma: either the ruling party “will continue to destroy independent institutions, will continue attempts to politicize the courts, destroy the local authorities and threaten the freedom of the media, or we will have a democratic state, in which the President restores the balance”.
Duda was recalled that the country’s economy over the past five years has increased. But his campaign was based not only on this. His promise to defend “family values” were perceived by liberal critics as “homophobic”, given the fact that Duda focused on the protection of children from “LGBT ideology”, which he compared to communism. These statements observers see a veiled attack to the side of Rafal Trzaskowski, who, being mere�� the Polish capital, established himself as a supporter of the rights of sexual minorities.
For Russia, the outcome of the Polish presidential elections makes little difference. Relations between Warsaw and Moscow have long been at the level “below a plinth”. Recent visit dream of creating on Polish soil “Fort trump” Andrzej Duda to the White house asking the U.S. President to transfer output from Germany, the us military on the territory of Poland, obviously, will not add a mutual sympathy between our countries.
