• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Thursday, August 18, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Democracy at Risk

Populist President Duda Wins Re-Election in Poland

Staff Writer by Staff Writer
07/13/20
in Democracy at Risk, World
Polish President Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda addresses supporters as exit poll results were announced during the presidential election in Lowicz, Poland, on June 28, 2020. Photo: Wojtek Radwanski/AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Polish President Andrzej Duda has squeezed past his europhile rival to win re-election, official results showed on Monday, but the narrow victory puts the populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party government on the backfoot.

A close ally of US President Donald Trump, Duda has vowed to tighten already highly restrictive laws against abortion and has campaigned against “LGBT ideology.”

The incumbent won a new five-year term with 51 percent in Sunday’s vote against 49 percent for Warsaw’s liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who had promised to mend ties with the European Union.

Experts said the result means the governing party, which has been criticized at home and abroad for controversial reforms of the judiciary seen as eroding democratic freedoms, will face a more confident opposition.

“Despite Trzaskowski’s defeat, his strong performance looks like a new beginning, a new dynamic for the opposition,” Andrzej Richard, a political scientist at Warsaw University, told local media.

“We’re on the cusp of some very significant changes on the Polish political scene,” he said, adding that “Trzaskowski appears poised to lead the opposition”.

 ‘Poland Split Down the Middle’

The government faces the immediate challenge of dealing with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic, which is pushing Poland into a recession — the country’s first since the fall of communism three decades ago.

Duda has promised to defend highly popular social welfare payments introduced by the PiS government.

“Poland is split down the middle,” said Witold Orlowski, a professor at Warsaw University of Technology Business School, predicting “a very difficult period” ahead.

“On the one hand, even this slim victory is a PiS success and will allow it to continue to govern, at least technically.

“On the other hand the social and economic situation will deteriorate and a large part of the electorate will blame the PiS,” Orlowski said.

On the foreign policy front, experts said Duda’s close ties with Trump could also spell trouble ahead if the US president fails to win re-election in November.

Duda’s support was particularly strong in rural areas and small towns and in the east of the country, while Trzaskowski has performed well in larger cities and western regions on the border with Germany.

“The result of these elections is a Poland divided in two with a not-so-rosy future, as it will be difficult to ease the division and to restore the relationship between the two sides,” analyst Kazimierz Kik told AFP.

White-Red vs Rainbow

The election had been due to be held in May but was delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. Its fallout is pushing Poland into its first recession since communism fell three decades ago.

The incumbent won round one on June 28 with 43.5 percent against 10 challengers, including Trzaskowski who came in second with 30.4 percent and had campaigned hard to sway voters who backed other opposition candidates.

Four days before the first round, Duda became the first foreign leader to visit the White House since the start of the pandemic and received praise from Trump for doing an “excellent job”.

Ahead of Sunday’s vote, PiS Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro characterized it as “a clash of two visions of Poland, the white-red and rainbow-colored,” referring to the colors of Poland’s national flag and the symbol most widely used by the LGBT community.

Duda has railed against “LGBT ideology”, likening it to a new form of communist brainwashing, and has vowed to change the constitution during his second term to rule out adoptions by same-sex couples.

ShareTweet
Staff Writer

Staff Writer

AFP with The Globe Post

Related Posts

Poland border wall
Refugees

Poland Begins Work on New EU-Belarus Border Wall

by Staff Writer
January 25, 2022
Ahmad al Hasan
Refugees

Teenage Syrian Laid to Rest by Poland-Belarus Border

by Staff Writer
November 15, 2021
Polish Court Defies EU as Critics Warn on ‘Polexit’
Democracy at Risk

Polish Court Defies EU as Critics Warn on ‘Polexit’

by Staff Writer
July 14, 2021
Polish President Andrzej Duda speaks at an event.
Democracy at Risk

Polish Writer Charged for Calling President Duda ‘Moron’

by Staff Writer
March 23, 2021
In World First, Polish Pharmaceutical Company Produces Plasma-Derived COVID Drug
World

In World First, Polish Pharmaceutical Company Produces Plasma-Derived COVID Drug

by Anya Ruppert
August 18, 2020
Opposition leaders wearing rainbow colors to make a statement at Duda's swearing-in ceremony.
Democracy at Risk

Polish Opposition MPs Wear LGBTQ Flag in Protest Against President Duda

by Josephine Walker
August 6, 2020
Next Post
Carrie Lam press conference in Hong Kong

Hong Kong Reimposes Social Distancing as Global Cases Continue to Rise

Lebanese anti-government protesters clash with soldiers in Bab Al-Tabbaneh neighborhood of the northern port city of Tripoli on June 13, 2020.

Free Speech Coalition Denounces Repression in Lebanon

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

A demonstrator sprays paint over an upside-down portrait of Chinese leader Xi Jinping

China Use of Psychiatric Hospitals to Punish Activists ‘Widespread:’ Report

August 17, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

August 17, 2022
People carry their belonging on their heads while they walk on a flooded road following heavy rain downpour in Wawa in Ogun State southwest Nigeria

Deadly Floods Kill 50 in Northern Nigeria

August 17, 2022
Marina Ovsyannikova

Russian TV Journalist Faces Jail Time for Anti-Putin Protest

August 10, 2022
Mar-A-Lago raid

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

August 9, 2022
Ukraine nuclear plant

Ukraine Calls for De-Militarization of Occupied Nuclear Plant

August 8, 2022

Opinion

US President Donald Trump

Donald Trump Thanks You for Your Sacrifice

August 17, 2022
Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

August 5, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Owning the Words and the Libs

June 16, 2022
Officers in Uvalde, Texas, stand outside Robb Elementary School near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims

Child Sacrifice Makes a Comeback

June 3, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post