Outgoing President Andrzej Duda is supported by Donald Trump but criticized by his European partners. The mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, appears to be his main rival.
By Le Figaro with AFP
–The Poles will elect their president on Sunday June 28 in a vote delayed by the pandemic and crucial for the future of the nationalist Conservative government, with an uncertain outcome. Outgoing President Andrzej Duda, who is seeking his second term, traveled to Washington this week where he could hear words of encouragement from President Donald Trump congratulating him on his “great job”.
Donald Trump considers Andrzej Duda, with the right-wing orientation of his Law and Justice party (PiS), as an important European ally. And the visit of the Polish head of state to the White House was the first by a foreign leader in the United States since the start of the pandemic. European partners have repeatedly pillored the reforms of the Polish populist government, in particular those of the judicial system, claiming that they are eroding democracy, barely three decades after the fall of communism.
According to the latest polls, Duda is easily in the lead in the first round on Sunday, but has only a 50% chance in the second round on July 12, likely against his liberal rival Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw. He promised the Poles to defend a whole series of benefits launched by the ruling party, including a child allowance and upgraded pensions – a key argument of the populists who owe him their second term won in the legislative elections in October.
The president supported PiS attacks on LGBT rights and Western values, in which detractors see a diversion from suspicion of corruption targeting senior party officials in handling the Covid-19 crisis. The head of state’s anti-gay attacks sparked protests in Poland and abroad.
By campaigning under the watchword “We’ve had enough“, The main rival of the outgoing president, Rafal Trzaskowski, undertook to repair the links with Brussels.
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