Duda, backed by the ruling nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS), won with 51.21% of the vote, the country’s electoral committee said Monday. Warsaw’s most liberal mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski, of the center-right opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, obtained 48.79%.
Voter turnout was over 68%, according to the committee, the most Poland has seen in 25 years for a presidential poll.
Duda initially declared victory on Sunday, but the Warsaw mayor refused to accept defeat, saying exit polls showed that the elections were still very close to being called. By Monday morning, more than 99% of the votes had been counted, and the chairman of the electoral committee said any additional vote would not change the result.
Electoral problems
During the campaign, Duda sought to mobilize his more conservative, largely rural base, with appeals to traditional Catholic values and a promise to uphold popular social welfare policies, such as child allowance and a lower pension age.
His focus on the issue of LGBTQ rights, at one time describing them as an “ideology” worse than Soviet-era communism, highlighted the deep cultural divisions in this Central European nation of 38 million people.
Duda’s re-election may help PiS consolidate power after losing control of Poland’s upper house, the Senate, to the opposition in parliamentary elections last October. His ruling coalition still closely controls the lower house, the Sejm.
Radical government reforms to the courts and the stance on LGBTQ issues, with the support of Duda, have already put Poland on a collision course with the European Union.
But with Duda in the presidency for another term, the PiS, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski, is likely to continue on the same path.
Trump has suggested that some of the American troops he plans to withdraw from Germany may head to Poland.
Global impact
The outcome of the elections could reverberate beyond Poland.
The country is one of the main beneficiaries of EU funding, and the bloc as an institution is popular with Poles. A Pew Research Center survey published last October found that 84% of respondents in Poland had a favorable opinion of the European Union.
But if the Polish government moves further to weaken the rule of law, in the opinion of EU leaders, its position in the bloc could be affected.
The European Commission has already launched several infringement procedures, including Article 7, on Poland’s radical reforms to the judiciary, which the PiS insists are necessary to eradicate corruption.
In campaigning, Duda argued that very close cooperation between the president and the government was in Poland’s interest and should continue.
Trzaskowski told CNN before the elections, Poland needed a “balance of power in which the President of the Republic can cooperate with the government as necessary, for example when it comes to restoring good relations with the European Union, but who is ready to veto legislation, for example, that meddles with the rule of law. ”
Poland should again be a constructive member of the European Union instead of being marginalized, he said.
“So it is very important to restore good relations with our closest neighbors. And, you know, we have the same goals, even with this conservative government when it comes to security, when it comes to our relations with Russia, with our East neighbors. But we just have to be strong and influential and that is the objective of the President of the Republic. ”
CNN’s Susannah Cullinane contributed to this report.
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