Pro-EU Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski is set to face his conservative opponent, historian Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential runoff on June 1st, after the two finished first and second in the first round of voting on Sunday, May 18th.
According to near complete results, Trzaskowski got 31.4% of the votes, while Nawrocki gathered 29.5% in the first round. Right-wing candidate Sławomir Mentzen finished in third place with 14.8%.
An overall victory for Trzaskowski would be a boost for the centrist government led by former European Council chief Donald Tusk, which has been at loggerheads with the current nationalist president.
A victory for Nawrocki, who is backed by the conservative opposition PiS party, would likely extend the political deadlock and analysts predict that fresh parliamentary elections may have to be called.
“This result shows how determined we have to be, how much work lies ahead of us,” Trzaskowski told supporters.
Nawrocki struck a defiant tone: “We must win these elections to prevent one political camp’s monopoly of power,” he said, referring to the Tusk government’s abuses of power and persecution of its political opponents.
