Polish presidential election too near name as campaigning enters last hours – Europe dwell

Let’s take a short take a look at occasions elsewhere in Europe.

For what it’s value, former Polish presidents broke 3:1 for Trzaskowski, with legendary Solidarność chief and Nobel prize winner Lech Wałęsa (and Polish president from 1990 to 1995) the most recent to declare his help for “anybody however Nawrocki” on his social media.

“My final request… and a warning!” he stated.

Aleksander Kwaśniewski (1995 to 2005) and Bronisław Komorowski (2005 to 2010) additionally declared their help for Trzaskowski, however the outgoing incumbent Andrzej Duda backed Nawrocki as a substitute.

“I, Andrzej Duda, having the identical proper as all of you to go to the polls and solid my vote, will vote for Karol Nawrocki on this election, as a result of I consider that he’s a person who will attempt and do every thing he can to make Poland an sincere nation, a powerful nation—additionally on the worldwide stage,” he stated final month.

Presidential vote more likely to decide Poland’s place on the EU stage

Jon Henley

Poland’s presidential election runoff might have far-reaching implications for its place in Europe – both cementing the nation’s hard-won seat on the EU’s prime desk, or heralding a return to altogether trickier instances.

The mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, faces off in opposition to the historian Karol Nawrocki on Sunday in a neck-and-neck race, pitting a liberal imaginative and prescient of Poland on the coronary heart of European policymaking in opposition to a nationalist, radical-right, EU-critical stance.

Trzaskowski is backed by the Civic Platform coalition of the prime minister, Donald Tusk, which received parliamentary elections in 2023. Nawrocki is backed by the opposition Legislation and Justice (PiS) get together, which was in energy for the eight earlier years.

Whereas in idea Polish presidents have restricted affect over international coverage, a win for Nawrocki, backed by PiS, would inevitably – and, ultimately, considerably – constrain Poland’s European ambitions, analysts say.

In the event you’re questioning simply how shut the polls are, I’ve simply appeared up all of them that have been printed within the final 24 hours. Trzaskowski leads in most of them, however by the tiniest of margins, from 0.2 to 2.4 proportion factors.

However two of them additionally give a win to Nawrocki, together with OGB Professional for Wirtualna Polska which got here closest to the precise outcome within the first spherical two weeks in the past.

They predict the race to be determined by someplace round 260,000 votes.

To offer you an concept of just how tight that’s, there are nearly 700,000 registered voters abroad, together with some 181,000 within the UK. So it’s theoretically potential that their votes might resolve the race…

Each candidates are out and about from early hours immediately, as they struggle for each single vote they will get.

Talking in Włocławek, Trzaskowski rallied his voters and urged them to “persuade all those that should not satisfied but.”

“These values that we most cherish – honesty, fundamental human decency, ale [the motivation to] construct Poland that thinks in regards to the future – will win,” he stated.

Nawrocki hit the street early, too, posting a smiling photograph from his marketing campaign bus simply earlier than 7am. Earlier this morning, he was in Gorlice in south-eastern Poland, rallying his voters in what’s historically a conservative stronghold.

Morning opening: Too near name

Jakub Krupa

Good morning, or dzień dobry, from Warsaw.

On the ultimate day of the Polish presidential marketing campaign, all polls present the distinction between the 2 main candidates – pro-European Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and nationalist proper historian Karol Nawrocki – throughout the margin of error.

With the nation going right into a interval of “electoral silence” at midnight, each of them have just below 15 hours to win over the past wavering voters in what’s going to in all probability be the closest election in Polish historical past.

In accordance with polls, some 5% of voters are but to make their minds up, and it’s this group that would resolve the end result on Sunday.

The ultimate margin between the 2 candidates is anticipated to be about 200,000 votes – in a nation of 37 million, with some 29.3 million eligible to vote.

I’ll convey you all the important thing updates from Poland and throughout Europe all through the day.

It’s Friday, 30 Could 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa right here, and that is Europe Dwell.

Good morning.