Polarised Poles vote in tight election

Poles voted yesterday in a knife-edge presidential election between a populist incumbent closely allied with US President Donald Trump and a Europhile liberal keen to mend fences with Brussels.

The result will be decisive for the future of Poland’s rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) party government, which has relied on its ally, the incumbent Andrzej Duda, to push through judicial reforms that have set Poland on a collision course with the EU over the rule of law three decades after the fall of communism.

Duda is facing a challenge from Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski of the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party and the latest polls show an almost even split between the two.

Wojciech, 59, a builder, who declined to provided his surname, said he chose Duda for his close ties to Trump and because he “agreed completely” with the incumbent’s vow to ban adoption for same-sex couples.

“Duda’s co-operation with Trump means we can count on the US for defence,” he said after voting in Warsaw.

Other voters said they chose the pro-European Trzaskowski in the hope he would mend ties with Brussels strained by controversial PiS judicial reforms.

“It’s important for there to be calm and good co-operation with our European partners,” Warsaw pensioner Danuta Lutecka said. She chose Trzaskowski, hoping for “less hate, less division” among Poles.

Voters at a polling station in Warsaw’s leafy Mokotow district wore masks, used hand sanitiser and their own pens in a bid to stem coronavirus infections at the ballot box.

The vote had been due in May — at a time when Duda was riding high in the polls — but was delayed because of the pandemic.

His support has slipped considerably since then, partly because of the virus fallout, which is pushing Poland into its first recession since communist rule. — AFP