ČTK
Updated 24 minutes ago
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In the first round of the presidential election in Poland, the current president Andrzej Duda, an important ally of the ruling national-conservative Party Law and Justice (PiS), won. According to the results, which were published by the Central Election Commission after the sum of about 99.78 percent of the constituencies, 43.7 percent of voters supported it.
He did not get more than half the number of votes, so in two weeks in the second round he will face the second most successful candidate, the mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski from the opposition Civic Platform.
Trzaskowski won 30.4 percent of the vote, followed by independent publicist and television presenter Szymon Holownia with 13.9 percent of the vote.
For PiS conservatives, keeping Duda as president is key to furthering their election program. In Monday ‘s interview for Polish the radio has indicated that Duda will defend conservative values, claiming, for example, that Poles do not want homosexual couples to be able to adopt children.
Trzaskowski, on the other hand, said his result showed he could beat Duda. “With support like this (today), we can go and fight for Poland,” he said.
The elections take place amid deep cultural and political differences. Conservative Duda led a campaign in predominantly Catholic Poland aimed at defending traditional values. He promised to raise the standard of living to that of Western Europe, opposed gay marriage and the adoption of children by the same sex. He denounced the Sexual Minority Movement (LGBT) as a “dangerous ideology”.
This kind of rhetoric – along with laws that give the PiS government much more control over the judiciary and the use of public media as tools to support the government – has raised concerns that Poland is following Hungary’s example in undermining the foundations of democracy, the AP said.
In the campaign, Warsaw Mayor Trzaskowski promised to maintain popular social PiS programs and restore compliance with constitutional standards. Trzaskowski entered the fight for the presidency relatively late. Dud’s strong support for voters, supported by the coverage of the president’s activities in the public media, began to decline as the easing of anti-disease measures allowed other candidates to campaign. Recent pre-election polls have suggested that Duda will not be sure of winning the second round against Trzaskowski.
