Polish presidential vote with a knife

The Poles will vote for a new president on Sunday in strict elections that will have great consequences for the future of the EU government in the country.

Public opinion polls say that Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskovsky and the national conservative historian Carol Naroki manage the neck and neck.

The President of Poland is largely a ceremonial role, but it comes with considerable negative power.

The president is entitled to the veto of legislation, and the government of the coalition lacks a sufficiently large parliamentary majority to cancel it.

Carol Naroki is an unwavering opponent of Donald Tusk’s coalition and is expected to use the veto as much, if not more often than the current conservative President Andrzej Duda, who cannot run for the third consecutive term.

Tusk is not able to fulfill many of his promises of a campaign after taking office 18 months ago due to the veto and Duda divisions in his coalition, which includes conservatives, centrists and leftists.

Tusk promised Polish women a legitimate abortion by the 12th week of pregnancy and the voters will correct the rule of law in the judiciary.

Many critics claim that the best courts of Poland were politicized under the previous government, led by law and justice (PIS), which lost power at the end of 2023.

On both questions, Tusk did a little ahead.

After winning the first round of the May 18 elections, Rafal Trzaskovski promised to cooperate with the government to achieve both.

Whatever the candidate mobilizes his voters on Sunday in the second round will be crucial who becomes the next president.

Another important factor is who can attract the votes of two far -right candidates, ranked third and fourth in the first round.

Candidates to combat the establishment received three times more votes than in the last 2020 presidential election.

While these voters support Nawrocki’s socially conservative views, some libertarians disagree with his support for generous state benefits to the less wealthy.

Both candidates led great, rival patriotic marches in Warsaw last Sunday to show who had the most important support.

Almost all participants in the rally of the Navy wore the red and white Polish flag. No one had the blue flag of the EU. A banner was “enough of (the destruction of Tusk’s democracy.”

Magdalena and her sister Martha said that the patriotism of Naroki was important. “We take care of our family first, then the nation and then the world,” Magdalena told me.

“Many politicians say,” Oh, we can’t do it because what will the Germans think about us? “I’m sorry, I’m not interested in what they think,” she said.

Carol Naroki, 42 -year -old, is the head of the Institute of National Memory, a state body investigating crimes dating from the Communist era and World War II. He was a relatively unknown nationwide before being elected by PI for running.

According to CBO’s turnout company, voters view it as a person who supports traditional Catholic values ​​and advocates the middle pillars, including small farmers, who are considered endangered by the EU green transaction, limiting the use of chemicals and greenhouse gases.

His typical voter is regarded as over the age of 40, conservative and family -oriented and lives in the countryside or small towns and cities.

Previously, he was the director of the World War II Museum in Gdansk, where he changed the exhibition to emphasize Polish heroism and suffering during the conflict.

A keen amateur football player and boxer, he likes to publish images of himself working on social media.

His strong image is pushed by Polish and foreign politicians. The former PM Mateusz Morawiecki, who published a Nawrocki model as Polish Captain America on social media.

Proponent Magdalena said he was not particularly charismatic, but Poland needs a “strong man who will be stable when it is pushed out of the world.”

Earlier this week, US Interior Security Minister Christy November flew to a Conservative Conference on Political Action (CPAC) in Poland to approve him as a “strong leader” as President Donald Trump.

“I just had the opportunity to meet Carol and listen, he must be the next Poland president,” she said five days before the vote.

Nobody said that his rival Trzaskovsky was “an absolute wreck of the leader’s train”.

Nawrocki’s campaign has been destroyed by revelations from its relatively unknown past, although the allegations have not seemed to have damaged its support so far.

He does not deny to participate in football hooligan quarrels and called them “noble battles”. But since he is not alone, as a few years ago Donald Tusk talks about participating in such battles as a young man.

However, he greatly denied a series of other claims – that he had relationships with gangsters and neo -Nazis; that he takes advantage of a sick adult citizen to acquire his advice on the council with a huge discount; And that he helped organize guest prostitutes at the luxury grand hotel in Sopot’s seaside resort when he worked there as a security guard.

Nawrocki said he would donate the charity apartment and threatened to sue the news website that publishes the prostitute’s story because it was a “lies” package.

Many of his supporters believe that the stories are made up of the main media that they see as a large extent Pro-Trozaskowski.

By taking the revelations, the Navy posted a video on the social media, put on an old song on Chumbawamba, with the chorus “I am demolished, but I get up again.”

The supporters of TRZaskowski were more likely to believe in claims, with one person in Warsaw holding a banner who reads: “Not on the gangster.”

The son of a well-known jazz pianist, 53-year-old mayor of Warsaw, is Deputy Leader of the Central Party on Donald Tusk’s central platform.

He also spoke in several languages ​​and once served as Minister of Europe.

He joined last Sunday March in Warsaw by another liberal mayor, who won the Romanian Presidency earlier this month. Nikur Dan told the supporters that they shared the same values ​​of a united and strong European Union.

According to CBOS, the typical voter of Trzaskowski is in their 30s, quite well-being and lives in one city. The voters see it as left liberal views, supporting the rights of LGBT and migrants.

While his opponents view Trzaskowski as part of the privileged elite of Poland, supporter Malgorzata, statistics, told me that he was “intelligent, professional European. This is enough to be President of Poland.”

Against the backdrop of the war in neighboring Ukraine and the difficult position of the Tusk government against illegal migration, Trzaskovsky presents himself, artificially according to some voters, as a person who believes in a strong nation -state and patriotism.

Another supporter, Bartos, said he wanted Poland to remain safely anchored in Europe.

“We know history. In 1939, we relied on the UK and France, but no one came. If we are partners with Europe politically and economically, then it is in their interest to support us,” he said.