The mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, narrowly won the first round of the presidential elections in Poland on Sunday against his right-wing opponent Karol Nawrocki, which threatens an unpredictable second round.
Trzaskowski, a member of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's party "Civic Platform", received 30.8% of the votes, while Nawrocki, supported by the populist right-wing party "Law and Justice" (PiS), received 29.1%. The liberal candidate's victory was not as convincing as predicted by pre-election polls, giving Nawrocki momentum to advance to the second round.
"I told you eight months ago that the fight would be very intense, and it is, — said Trzaskowski at a rally organized by his campaign on Sunday evening. — This result shows how strong and determined we need to be to win the presidential elections."
Nawrocki thanked his supporters for standing up to "the pressure of propaganda, falsehood, and lies, not succumbing to the power of Donald Tusk's state institutions."
According to Bartosz Rydlinski, a political scientist from Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw, the mayor of Warsaw now needs to broaden his appeal to a wider range of voters.
The battle between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki will be about who can attract voters who preferred one of the minor candidates in the first round. Trzaskowski will aim to capture supporters of centrist and left-wing candidates, while Nawrocki will hope to gain support from the far-right Slawomir Mentzen, who came in third with 15.4%.
"I want to address one of the candidates, Slawomir Mentzen. It's time to save Poland. We both want a sovereign, strong, wealthy, and safe Poland," — said Nawrocki in his speech after the polling stations closed.
There are also other worrying signs for Trzaskowski in Sunday's results. Grzegorz Braun, a far-right anti-Semitic candidate, best known for using a fire extinguisher to put out a Jewish menorah in the Polish parliament, unexpectedly took a strong fourth place with 6.2%. Adrian Zandberg, a representative of the far-left party "Together", which is not part of Tusk's coalition, took fifth place with 5.2%.
Overall, candidates opposing Tusk performed better than candidates from parties supporting the government. "The game for everything is just beginning. A tough fight for every vote. These two weeks will decide the future of our country. So not a step back," — wrote Tusk on the X website.
Photo: EPA