Poland’s conservative president wins second term in narrow vote

Poland’s conservative president Andrzej Duda has narrowly won a second five-year term in a bitterly fought weekend election, defeating the liberal mayor of Warsaw.

The state electoral commission said Mr Duda had 51.21 per cent of the ballot based on a count of votes from 99.97 per cent districts, with his opponent, Rafal Trzaskowski, trailing on 48.79 per cent.

The very close race reflected the deep cultural divisions in the European Union nation. It followed a bitter campaign dominated by issues of culture in which the government, state media and the influential Catholic church all mobilised in support of Mr Duda, a social conservative, and sought to stoke fears of Jews, LGBT people and Germans.

Mr Duda, who is backed by the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party, campaigned on traditional values and expanding popular social spending policies in the mostly Catholic nation.

The party’s policies, including hugely popular monthly cash bonuses of 500 zlotys (£100) per child to all families irrespective of income, have helped alleviate poverty in rural regions, and given families more money to spend.

Mr Duda also had strong support among older Poles after he and the party lowered the retirement age and introduced a yearly cash bonus called a “13th pension”.

But the party has also stoked conflict with the European Union. Its leaders have used rhetoric discriminating against LGBT people and other minorities, and the party has turned public television into a propaganda tool used during the campaign to praise Mr Duda and cast Mr Trzaskowski in a bad light.

Mr Trzaskowski, a former European Parliament politician who jumped into the race late, had vowed to protect the country’s democratic values and unite the divided society, while preserving the popular welfare policies. He represented the centrist opposition Civic Platform party, which was in power in from 2007 to 2015.

As the race became tighter in recent weeks, Mr Duda turned further to the right in search of votes. He seized on gay rights as a key theme, denouncing the LGBT rights movement as an “ideology” worse than communism.

Mr Trzaskowski, as Warsaw mayor, had signed a tolerance declaration for LGBT people which triggered a nationwide backlash last year. The ruling party has often denounced LGBT rights as a foreign import that threatens Polish identity.

Mr Duda’s campaign also cast Mr Trzaskowski as someone who would sell out Polish families to Jewish interests, tapping into old antisemitic tropes in a country that was home to Europe’s largest Jewish community before it was devastated in the Holocaust.