Participation was much higher than usual. The Poles understood that this crucial round for the future of the country; and, despite the fact that the coronavirus is still lively in the country, they crowded the polling stations, wearing masks and bringing their pens from home, as recommended.
At 5 pm on Sunday almost half of those entitled had voted, 47.89%, the highest influx in thirty years of democracy. The choice between the well-being promised by the outgoing president, Andrzej Duda, 48 years old, supported by PiS, Law and Justice, the conservative ruling party, and the rapprochement with the legal and moral parameters of Europe, promoted by the competitor who will challenge him to the ballot, Rafal Trzaskowski, same age, appreciated mayor of Warsaw and last-minute candidate, thanks to the postponement of the elections, initially set for 10 May and then moved due to the health crisis.
The pandemic has shaken up Poland’s economic situation, which it faces its first recession in thirty years, with an expected drop in GDP of around 5% which could reach 10% before the end of the year. The sovereignist Duda therefore appears in the eyes of his constituents as the guarantor of stability in the crossing of stormy waters, as well as the champion of the family and traditional values.
Internal and external alarms (in particular from the European Commission) on the authoritarian drifts of Mateusz Morawiecki’s government, on the reforms that weaken the independence of the judiciary, on the ostracism of gay couples or women’s rights, convinced by an important part of the Poles to side with the centrist liberals of Civic Platform and with the flag bearer Trzaskowski.
Europe is an eager spectator of the internal conflict between two opposite visions of the future. Poland, the Union’s sixth economic power, has shown itself to be deaf or at least indifferent to the calls and infringement procedures unnecessarily open to it. Duda, while presenting himself as a European thread, has shown that he does not consider Brussels an essential interlocutor and winks at Donald Trump overseas who flatters him by citing him as a friend, as well as an ideological partner.
Article being updated …
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