Polish President Andrzej Duda won a second five-year term, narrowly defeating his liberal opponent Rafal Trzaskowski in Sunday’s presidential election, according to reports.
The state electoral commission said Duda had 51.21 percent of the vote based on a district vote count of 99.97 percent. Trzaskowski lagged behind with 48.79 percent of the vote.
Duda is a social conservative aligned with the right-wing ruling party, Law and Justice. It has come under criticism from the European Union for denouncing gay rights and the LGBTQ movement as a “ideology” worse than communism.
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Current President Andrzej Duda displays a victory sign in Pultusk, Poland, on Sunday, July 12, 2020. (AP Photo / Czarek Sokolowski)
His campaign also featured Trzaskowski, the socially liberal mayor of Warsaw, as someone who would sell Polish interests to Jewish interests, taking advantage of old anti-Semitic tropes in the country that was once the home of Europe’s largest Jewish community before that Nazi Germany decimated it. the Holocaust.
The electoral commission said at a press conference Monday that it was not sure when the full results of the elections would be announced, but the additional counts were not expected to affect Duda’s leadership, according to the BBC. Voter turnout was very high, at 68.1 percent, close to a record set in 1995, signaling huge bets for Poles on both sides of the division.
Sunday’s vote was originally planned for May, but was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Duda and the Law and Justice party, both in power since 2015, have been credited for delivering on promises to reduce economic inequality that came with the country’s transition from communism to a market economy three decades ago. They also solidified support among older Poles by lowering the retirement age and introducing an annual cash bonus called “13th pension.”
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Presidential candidate Rafal Trzaskowski shows a victory sign at the end of election day in Warsaw, Poland, on Sunday July 12, 2020. The voting ended in the second round of the Polish presidential election between incumbent Conservative Andrzej Duda and the Liberal, pro Rafal Trzaskowski, Warsaw Mayor of the European Union. Exit polls initially showed that the election was too close to the call. (AP Photo / Petr David Josek)
Duda’s presidential re-election campaign focused on upholding traditional family values in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation of 38 million people, and preserving social spending policies.
Law and Justice party policies include very popular monthly cash bonuses of 500 zlotys ($ 125) per child for all families, regardless of income. They have helped alleviate poverty in rural regions and have given all families more money to spend.
Trzaskowski, a former European Parliament lawmaker who ran late, said he wanted to protect the country’s democratic values and unite divided society while preserving popular welfare policies.
He represented the centrist opposition Civic Platform party, which was in power from 2007 to 2015. He oversaw strong economic growth, but is now blamed by many for allowing the gap between rich and poor to widen.
As mayor, Trzaskowski had signed a declaration of tolerance for LGBT people in his city that sparked a backlash across the country last year. The leader of the ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, denounced LGBT rights as a foreign import that threatens Polish identity.
The EU has denounced rhetoric against homosexuals, and some EU officials have called for denial of funding to communities that declared themselves “LGBT-free,” mostly a symbolic gesture without legal significance that has sparked fear among gays and lesbians.
Duda also lashed out at a German correspondent and a partly German-owned tabloid newspaper for its campaign coverage, claiming there was “a German attack in this election.” Last week, the Foreign Ministry summoned Germany’s top diplomat to complain about the coverage, while the German government insisted that it was not trying to influence elections or the work of the free media.
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Duda also received apparent endorsement from the President of the United States, Donald Trump, with a last-minute invitation from the White House in late June, according to the Associated Press. Trump praised Duda and said: “He is doing an excellent job. The people of Poland think of his world.”
Associated Press contributed to this report.
