Polish centrist Trzaskowski declares victory as exit polls show narrow lead
Centrist Rafal Trzaskowski is narrowly leading nationalist Karol Nawrocki in Poland's presidential race as the official results are still awaited. The exit polls projected the Polish centrist presidential candidate has the upper hand over the nationalist opponent.Rafal Trzaskowski, however, declared victory in Poland's presidential election on Sunday."We won," Trzaskowski told his cheering supporters after the polls were released. "I will bring people together, I will be constructive, I will be a president for all Poles. I will be your president."advertisementWHAT EXIT POLLS SHOW
According to Ipsos exit poll carried out for TVN, TVP, and Polsat television networks, Trzaskowski secured 50.3% of the vote. Nawrocki, a conservative historian and amateur boxer, was close behind with 49.7%. However, the official results are expected on Monday. Notably, the exit poll has a 2-percentage-point margin of error, which could change the final outcome.While most power in Poland lies with the parliament, the president can veto laws. Due to this, Ukraine, Russia, the US, and the European Union are keeping track of the Polish presidential elections.Both candidates agreed on the need to spend heavily on defence, as US President Donald Trump is demanding from Europe, and to continue supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia's three-year-old invasion.But while Trzaskowski sees Ukraine's future membership of NATO as essential for Poland's security, Nawrocki said recently that if he were president he would not ratify it because of the danger of the alliance being drawn into war with Russia.advertisementNawrocki, who draws inspiration from Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, said it was too early to call Trzaskowski's victory."We will win and we will save Poland," he said. "We will not allow for Donald Tusk's power to be all-encompassing and the monopoly of evil power ... which takes away our great dreams ...to become complete."With inputs from Reuters
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Indian Express
19 hours ago
- Indian Express
Europe's far-right swing will be a test for liberal politics
Recent parliamentary elections in Portugal, as well as presidential elections in Romania and Poland clearly indicate two trends in Europe: The growing polarisation in most European societies and, second, a continued far-right surge across the continent. In a nail-biting runoff election on June 1, Poland elected nationalist Karol Nawrocki as President. He narrowly defeated liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski. Nawrocki was backed by the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) and also received support from the administration of US President Donald Trump. It came as a shock to many Poles, as Trzaskowski had received more votes than Nawrocki in the first round, and the country had rejected the nationalist party in parliamentary elections less than two years ago. This is also a major blow to pro-European Union (EU) Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who was hoping for Trzaskowski's victory to advance his reform agenda. Tusk, a former President of the European Council, returned to power in Poland in 2023. Before him, the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) ruled Poland for eight consecutive years, from 2015 to 2023. During this period, Poland's relations with the EU became increasingly strained due to the government's expanding control over the judiciary, restrictions on media freedom, controversial migration policies, and its stance on LGBTQ+ rights. With the change in government, both the EU and Tusk were hopeful about reversing many of these policies. However, Tusk has not been able to govern freely, as the PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda blocked many of his initiatives and appointments. Although the Polish presidency is largely ceremonial, the president's approval is crucial for key policy measures and appointments. Tusk's coalition does not have a big enough majority in parliament to override presidential vetoes. Duda has consistently obstructed Tusk since 2023, and this stalemate is now expected to continue. In a move to reassert his authority, Tusk has called for a vote of confidence in parliament. He is likely to survive the vote, as his coalition holds 242 seats in the 460-member lower house. The move is primarily aimed at countering calls for his resignation following the defeat of the presidential candidate he supported. As a relatively large country with considerable influence in European institutions, political developments in Poland have a significant impact on the European integration project. Poland has been one of the major beneficiaries of EU membership since joining in 2004. Despite this, the country has elected a President widely described as a Eurosceptic. Nawrocki campaigned on a platform of opposing the EU's federalist tendencies and climate policies, rejecting special rights for the LGBTQ+ community, and supporting strict abortion laws. 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Chega's campaign focused on an anti-immigration agenda and the housing crisis. Like many other far-right leaders and parties, Chega also received support from the Trump administration. Its leader, André Ventura, was invited to attend Trump's inauguration in January. Luís Montenegro, leader of the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and head of the Democratic Alliance (AD), has now been sworn in as Portugal's new Prime Minister, heading a minority government. Both the Socialists and Chega have pledged not to bring down the government. Montenegro, however, has rejected Chega's call for constitutional reform and stated that he would rather focus on the economy and the health system. In contrast to Portugal and Poland, Romania has elected a liberal, pro-EU figure — Nicușor Dan — as President, following months of serious political turbulence. In the first round, George Simion, leader of the far-right AUR party, was in the lead. 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Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Hindustan Times
What Poland's new president means for Europe
THE PRESIDENTIAL election in Poland on June 1st was a distillation of the political choice facing all Europe these days. Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, was backed by the centrist, pro-European government. Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist historian and former amateur boxer, was nominated by Law and Justice (PiS), the hard-right opposition party, and supported by Donald Trump's administration and by populists abroad. The campaign was bitter, and close enough that exit polls on the evening of the election had the mayor narrowly ahead. But when all the votes were counted it was Mr Nawrocki who had won, taking 50.9% of the vote to Mr Trzaskowski's 49.1%. Mr Nawrocki presented himself as the candidate to hold the government of the prime minister, Donald Tusk, in check. 'We will not allow Donald Tusk to consolidate his power,' he said at his post-election rally, denouncing the government for aiming to achieve a 'monopoly'. For supporters of Mr Trzaskowski or Mr Tusk, that has an ironic ring. Since coming to office in 2023 the prime minister has been trying to undo PiS's attempt at state capture while it was in power from 2015 to 2023, when it packed the courts and independent institutions with its cronies. Conflicts with European courts led the European Union to cut off aid for years. Mr Nawrocki's victory may now cripple the government's effort to repair the rule of law. The PiS-backed candidate is new to politics, but he can wield a simple tool—by using the presidential veto to block Mr Tusk's agenda. The government lacks the three-fifths majority in parliament needed to override it. The hard right's win seems also likely to touch off a crisis for Mr Tusk's eclectic coalition, which includes everything from progressive leftists to a conservative farmers' party. PiS will doubtless try to persuade right-leaning MPs to defect and bring down the government. Even if it fails, the next elections to parliament are due in 2027. Either way, Mr Tusk appears now to be a lame duck, though he tried to dispel that impression by calling a confidence vote supposedly to demonstrate the strength of his coalition's majority; it will take place on June 11th. Mr Nawrocki's victory worried investors. Poland's bullish stockmarket fell by 2% after the results were announced. Mr Trzaskowski owes his loss in part to the government's inability to deliver. When Mr Tusk won the election in 2023, he promised to purge PiS's cronies from the courts, public media and state-owned companies. But the outgoing president, Andrzej Duda, also aligned with PiS, blocked crucial reforms and routine appointments. Mr Tusk put much of his rule-of-law agenda on hold. That was not his fault, but on other priorities, such as liberalising access to abortion (which PiS had all but banned), he was unable to get his unruly coalition to agree. Poles have clearly lost patience: in an exit poll on June 1st by OGB, a Polish pollster, 47% of voters said they had a poor opinion of the government, while just 30% had a favourable one. The Polish presidency is not responsible for EU policy; Mr Tusk, not Mr Nawrocki, will continue to attend EU summits. Nonetheless, the president-elect can be expected to try to shift the country in a Eurosceptic direction. He was endorsed during the campaign by Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, and by others from the EU's populist bloc. 'We don't want to be a European Union province,' he told supporters at a rally. Mr Nawrocki has also turned away from PiS's traditionally firm support for Ukraine, pledging during the campaign to oppose that country's admission to NATO, though there is very little chance that this will happen soon. For many of Mr Nawrocki's opponents, the most troubling aspect of his victory is his tainted past. In the last weeks of the campaign, journalists reported claims that in the early 2000s he procured sex workers for guests at a hotel where he worked. He denies those allegations. He has acknowledged, however, that in his 20s he engaged in mass brawls with other football hooligans. Newspapers reported for weeks on his relationship with an aged neighbour, whom he allegedly scammed out of his flat. Mr Nawrocki and his allies call such allegations a smear campaign by Mr Trzaskowski and the state media. To stay on top of the biggest European stories, sign up to Café Europa, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. Get 360° coverage—from daily headlines to 100 year archives.
Mint
2 days ago
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How the CIA smuggled Orwell and Le Carré into the eastern bloc
The Economist Published 5 Jun 2025, 06:48 PM IST The CIA Book Club: The Best-Kept Secret of the Cold War. By Charlie English. William Collins; 384 pages; £25. To be published in America by Random House in July; $35 Books were smuggled on boats, trains and trucks, concealed in food tins, baby nappies and even the sheet music of travelling musicians. Over three decades before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the CIA funnelled 10m books into the eastern bloc, including George Orwell's '1984', John le Carré's spy thrillers and Virginia Woolf's writing advice. The programme was 'the best-kept secret of the cold war', writes Charlie English, an author, in a new book. George Minden, the leader of the literary-propaganda scheme, described it as 'an offensive of free, honest thinking'. Censors in the eastern bloc banned books for ideological reasons or because they depicted life in the West. Rulings were draconian and absurd. Detective novels by Agatha Christie with no political message were forbidden; a book about carrots was destroyed because it described how they could grow in individuals' gardens, not only in collectives. The state controlled printing presses. Typewriters had to be registered, and a permit was sometimes needed to buy paper. So the CIA sent printing supplies to dissidents. When Poland was under communist rule, the ink, typesetters and photocopiers sent by the agency helped sustain an underground publishing network. One Polish printer has compared this equipment to 'machine guns or tanks during war', enabling the opposition to reproduce banned books and publish their own newspapers. Adam Michnik, a former Polish dissident, told Mr English that illicit tomes saved his country: 'A book was like fresh air. They allowed us to survive and not go mad.' Inside and outside the CIA, the scholarly scheme has received little attention and credit, until now. Mr English concludes that the programme was hugely successful, though it may have been one of 'the most highbrow intelligence operations ever'. You could even call it bookish.
