Adam Easton
BBC Warsaw correspondent
Reuters
Rafal Trzaskowski (L) has a narrow lead in the polls surrounding national conservative historian Karol Nawrocki (R).
The Poles will vote for the new president on Sunday in a tough election that will bring great consequences for the future of the country’s pro-EU government.
Polls show that Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafal Truzaskowski and national conservative historian Karol Naulocki run their necks and necks.
The Polish president is primarily a ritual role, but it has an important negative power.
The president has the right to reject the law, and the Union government lacks sufficient parliamentary majority to overturn it.
Karol Nawrocki is a solid opponent of Donald Tusk’s coalition and is expected to use veto, if not more frequently, than incumbent conservative Andrzej Duda, who is unable to run for three consecutive terms.
Tusk has been unable to provide many of his campaign promises since taking office 18 months ago due to Duda’s veto and division within his coalition, including conservatives, centralists and leftists.
Tusk has pledged a legal abortion until the 12th week of pregnancy, with voters pledging to repair the rule of law of justice.
Many critics say that Poland’s Supreme Court was politicized under the previous law and Judicial Leading (PIS) government, which lost power in late 2023.
With both issues, Tusk has made little progress.
After a slight victory in the first round of the election on May 18th, Rafal Torzaskovsky pledged to work with the government to achieve both.
The candidates who mobilize voters in Sunday’s second round leak are key to who will become the next president.
Another important factor is who can attract the votes of two far-right candidates who came in third and fourth in the first round.
The anti-establishment candidate received three times the votes he held in the last presidential election in 2020.
While these voters support Nowrocky’s socially conservative views, some libertarians oppose his support for the generous national interests of the less wealthy.
Both candidates led a massive, rival patriotic march in Warsaw last Sunday to show who received the greatest support.
Almost every participant in the Nawrocki rally raised a red and white Polish flag. No one had a blue EU flag. One banner is “All Tusk’s” [demolition] of democracy.”
Magdalena and her sister Marta said that Now Rocky’s patriotism was important. “We care first about our family, then our nation, and then our world,” Magdalena told me.
“Many politicians say, ‘Oh, what Germans think about us, can’t we do that?” I’m sorry, but I don’t care what they think,” she said.
Getty Images
Karol Nawrocki attended a rally at Katowice on Thursday night
Karol Nawrocki, 42, is the head of the National Memorial Institute, a national organization investigating crimes dating back to the communist era and World War II. He was relatively unknown nationwide before he was selected for PIS and ran.
According to the CBO voting company, voters view him as a stand-up to traditional Catholic values, a stand-up to the average Polish person, and include smallholder farmers who believe that EU green trade will limit the use of chemicals and greenhouse gases.
His typical voters are over 40, conservative, family friendly, and are believed to live in rural areas, small towns and cities.
Previously he was director of the World War II museum in Gdansk, and changed the exhibition to highlight Polish heroes and suffering during the conflict.
The avid amateur soccer player and boxer loves to publish images of himself working on social media.
His powerful image is promoted by Polish and foreign politicians alike. Ex-PM Mateusz Morawiecki has posted a nocky haha on social media as Poland’s Captain America.
Supporter Magdalena said he was not particularly charismatic, but Poland needed “a strong man who will be stable when he is forced into the world.”
Getty Images
Homeland Security Secretary Christa Noem met Now Rocky on the sidelines of a conservative political action conference
Earlier this week, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Christie Noem flew to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Poland, where he was supported as a “strong leader” like President Donald Trump.
“I just had the opportunity to meet and listen to Karol. He needs to be Poland’s next president,” she said five days before the vote.
Noem said his rival, Trzaskowski, was “the absolute wreckage of the leader’s train.”
Nawrocki’s campaign has been plagued by revelations from his relatively unknown past, but so far the allegations do not seem to undermine his support.
He does not deny participating in football hooligan brawls, calling them “noble fights.” But in that he isn’t alone, as Donald Tass spoke about taking part in a similar battle with the younger man a few years ago.
However, he strongly denied a series of other allegations – that he had connections with gangs and neo-Nazis. That he took advantage of the sick elderly and got a huge discount on his council flat. And while he was working as a security guard he helped arrange a prostitute for his guests at a luxury grand hotel in a seaside resort in Sopot.
Nawrocki said he would donate the flat to a charity and threatened to sue the news website that published the prostitute stories because it was a “pack of lies.”
Many of his supporters believe the story is made up of mainstream media.
Shaking the revelation, Now Rocky posted a video on social media, setting the set to an old Chumbhawamba song, along with the chorus, “I’ll be knocked down, but I’ll wake up again.”
Annadoll via Getty Images
Rafal Trzaskowski portrays himself as a man who believes in a strong nation
Supporters of Trzaskowski tended to believe the allegations when one Warsaw man continues to read “don’t become a gang.”
The 53-year-old Mayor of Warsaw, the son of a famous jazz pianist, is the assistant leader of Donald Tass’s Centist Civic Platform Party.
He also speaks several languages, where he once served as a minister of Europe.
He joined in March last month in Warsaw, another liberal mayor who won the Romanian presidency earlier this month. Nikhsur Dan told supporters he shared the same values as a unified, powerful European Union.
According to the CBO, the typical voter for Trzaskowski is in his 30s, quite wealthy and lives in the city. Voters see him as having a leftist view in favor of LGBT and immigrant rights.
His opponents view Trzaskowski as part of the Polish privileged elite, but statistician supporter Malgorzata said he was “an intelligent and professional European. That’s enough to become Polish president.”
In response to the background of the war in neighbouring Ukraine and the harsh stance of the Fang government on illegal migration, Trzaskowski artificially portrays himself, according to some voters, as someone who believes in a powerful nation and patriotism.
Another supporter, Bartos, said he hopes Poland remains securely anchored in Europe.
“We know history. In 1939 we relied on the UK and France, but no one came. If we partner with Europe politically and economically, it’s their interest to support us,” he said.
