Populist Duda in hairline win
Historic re-election
WARSAW, Poland (AFP) — Polish President Andrzej Duda squeezed past a Europhile rival to win re-election, official results showed Monday, but the narrow victory put allies in the populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party on the back foot.
Seeking close ties with US President Donald Trump, Duda has vowed to tighten already restrictive laws against abortion, and campaigned against LGBT rights.
Trump on Monday congratulated Duda on his “historic re-election.”
“Looking forward to continuing our important work together,” he wrote on Twitter.
The incumbent won a new five-year term with 51.03 percent of Sunday’s vote against 48.97 percent for Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, according to final results from
the country’s electoral commission.
Trzaskowski had vowed to mend ties with the European Union.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Duda on his win, tweeting that she looked “forward to working with him on the many challenges Europe and Poland have to face together.”
Trzaskowski had vowed to mend ties with the European Union.
Experts said the result means the governing PiS party, which has been criticized at home and abroad for reforms of the judiciary seen as eroding democratic freedoms, will face a more confident opposition.
“President Duda has won the election, but the real success is for Rafal Trzaskowski and the opposition which has gained ground,” said Kazimierz Kik, a political expert from Kielce University.
Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a Warsaw University political scientist, warned there was a “realistic” risk that Poland could begin to resemble Hungary, which has been accused of drifting towards authoritarianism under nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.