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Pro-EU candidate Rafał Trzaskowski was heading to win the Polish president’s defeat vote on Sunday after the exit vote gave him a razor-thin lead to his right-wing opponent.
In the IPSOS exit poll, Warsaw mayor Truzaskovsky, who represents Prime Minister Donald Tass’s central right civic platform party, won 50.3% of the vote against 49.7% of the Nationalist Opposition Law and Justice (PIS) Party historian Karol Nowrocky.
The outflow results allow Tusk to advance his reform agenda if confirmed by the final results. After the election defeat of right-wing politicians who lined up with US presidents of Canada, Australia and Romania, Donald Trump’s magazine movement would take another blow to the overseas magazine movement.
Speaking in front of Warsaw’s jubilant supporters minutes after the exit vote, Trzaskowski declared victory with a “incredibly close” leak. He promised to be “all Polish presidents,” and addressed papers about the bitter, deep fault lines of Polish society that the election emphasized.
“My first job as a president is to reach out to all those who didn’t vote for me,” Trzaskowski said. “I do everything so that I can regain my normal, calm conversation ability.”
Far from admitting defeat, Nowrocky told supporters “we will win and save Poland,” warning Task against allowing “to monopolize power.” Nawrocki ended his speech by calling the difference in exit voting “minimum”, and Poland began with him on Monday as president.
“We need to win tonight and we know we’re going to do that,” he added.
The Election Commission says it hopes the final results will be announced Monday morning or early afternoon.
Prior to Sunday’s vote, Task warned voters that Nowrocky could not only abandon his reforms, but also undermine Poland’s role in the EU amid a full-scale invasion of Russian neighbourhood Ukraine.
Tusk faced a deadlock in the system as another PIS candidate, President Andrzej Duda, vetoed Tusk’s planned judicial overhaul and other reforms since the Task Alliance took the party in 2023.
