Latest news with #RafalTrzaskowski
The Star
4 days ago
- Politics
- The Star
Polish liberal candidate's team lodge protest over presidential election
FILE PHOTO: Civic Coalition presidential candidate, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski flashes the victory sign during the election evening, in Warsaw, Poland, June 1, 2025. REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/File Photo WARSAW (Reuters) -The campaign team of the defeated candidate in Poland's presidential election lodged a protest over alleged voting irregularities, its head said late on Monday, part of a wave of complaints from supporters of liberal Rafal Trzaskowski. Trzaskowski, from the ruling Civic Coalition (KO), was narrowly defeated by nationalist Karol Nawrocki in the June 1 second round, with the nationalist candidate backed by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party getting 50.89% of the vote. Media reported irregularities in the second round and the Supreme Court has ordered a recount in 13 commissions, but this won't affect the final result materially. "In a democratic electoral process, every voter's vote must be guaranteed due respect by state institutions. The election protest of (Trzaskowski's) campaign representative was sent to the Supreme Court," the chief of Trzaskowski's campaign, Wiola Paprocka, wrote on X late on Monday. She gave no details of the wording of the protest. Another member of the Trzaskowski campaign team, Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said on Saturday he was filing a protest privately, pointing to an unusual increase in spoiled or blank ballots in areas where Trzaskowski won in the first round. He said that according to a model from UCE Research, there were 800 polling stations where Nawrocki had a "suspiciously high" score, and referred to irregularities in polling stations where a recount has already been ordered. The PiS party says that Trzaskowski's supporters are trying to undermine Poles' faith in the democratic process. Current president and PiS ally Andrzej Duda said on June 9 that "liberal-leftists, want to... take away our freedom of choice." Poles had until Monday to lodge protests with the Supreme Court, and the court has around two weeks to hear them. The Polish electoral commission on Monday confirmed the result of the election but said that in the second round, there were "incidents that could have affected the outcome of the vote." It said it would leave an assessment of these incidents to the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court spokesperson said on Monday that it had already registered over 3,000 protests and expected many more. (Reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Alan Charlish and Bernadette Baum)
Straits Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Polish liberal candidate's team lodge protest over presidential election
WARSAW - The campaign team of the defeated candidate in Poland's presidential election lodged a protest over alleged voting irregularities, its head said late on Monday, part of a wave of complaints from supporters of liberal Rafal Trzaskowski. Trzaskowski, from the ruling Civic Coalition (KO), was narrowly defeated by nationalist Karol Nawrocki in the June 1 second round, with the nationalist candidate backed by the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party getting 50.89% of the vote. Media reported irregularities in the second round and the Supreme Court has ordered a recount in 13 commissions, but this won't affect the final result materially. "In a democratic electoral process, every voter's vote must be guaranteed due respect by state institutions. The election protest of (Trzaskowski's) campaign representative was sent to the Supreme Court," the chief of Trzaskowski's campaign, Wiola Paprocka, wrote on X late on Monday. She gave no details of the wording of the protest. Another member of the Trzaskowski campaign team, Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk said on Saturday he was filing a protest privately, pointing to an unusual increase in spoiled or blank ballots in areas where Trzaskowski won in the first round. He said that according to a model from UCE Research, there were 800 polling stations where Nawrocki had a "suspiciously high" score, and referred to irregularities in polling stations where a recount has already been ordered. The PiS party says that Trzaskowski's supporters are trying to undermine Poles' faith in the democratic process. Current president and PiS ally Andrzej Duda said on June 9 that "liberal-leftists, want to... take away our freedom of choice." Poles had until Monday to lodge protests with the Supreme Court, and the court has around two weeks to hear them. The Polish electoral commission on Monday confirmed the result of the election but said that in the second round, there were "incidents that could have affected the outcome of the vote." It said it would leave an assessment of these incidents to the Supreme Court. A Supreme Court spokesperson said on Monday that it had already registered over 3,000 protests and expected many more. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
LeMonde
6 days ago
- Politics
- LeMonde
Poland delivers Trump his first electoral victory in Europe
The narrow margin of their candidate's win did not diminish the triumph for Polish nationalists. By garnering 50.89% of the vote in the June 1 runoff against Warsaw's liberal, pro-European Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski (49.11%), Karol Nawrocki returned Poland, the European Union's sixth-largest economy, to the conservative fold now dominated by Donald Trump. "You could […] say the 'Washington Express' has arrived in Warsaw," celebrated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another member of this conservative circle, delighted to expand the club that already includes Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Slovakia's Robert Fico. The driving forces of an election are first and foremost domestic. In this case, the ultraconservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, represented by Nawrocki – a 42-year-old historian and complete newcomer to politics – once again succeeded in stoking and exploiting the potent nationalism that permeates Polish society. In a country that has narrowly escaped disappearance multiple times and where it is common for conversations to turn to grievances against the world at large, and Western Europe in particular, this is a decisive factor.
Al Jazeera
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Seeking fresh start, Poland's Tusk faces confidence vote
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says his pro-European Union coalition has the mandate to govern ahead of a crucial confidence vote in parliament. Tusk called the vote as he seeks to regain momentum after his ally Rafal Trzaskowski was defeated by nationalist Karol Nawrocki in the country's presidential election earlier this month, prompting predictions of his government's demise. Tusk, whose fractious centrist coalition built around his Civic Platform party holds 242 seats in the 460-seat Sejm, or lower house, is expected to survive the vote, which could potentially trigger early elections, not scheduled until 2027. 'Governing Poland is a privilege,' Tusk told politicians ahead of the vote on Wednesday. 'We have a mandate to take full responsibility for what's going on in Poland.' He listed higher defence spending and a cut in his government's visa issuance for migrants as major achievements since he took power in October 2023 from the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS). But a win is unlikely to bring the 'new beginning' the 68-year-old leader is hoping for after this month's presidential race left his coalition rattled, raising questions over his leadership against a backdrop of surging support for the far-right in the country of 38 million. Following the presidential election, there has been growing criticism that Tusk's government has underdelivered on its campaign promises, failing to fulfil pledges of liberalising abortion laws, reforming the judiciary and raising the tax-free income threshold. Tensions within the governing coalition, particularly with the Polish People's Party (PSL), which advocates for socially conservative values and wants more curbs on immigration, could spell more trouble. President-elect Nawrocki, an admirer of US President Donald Trump, is also an EU-sceptic who is expected to work to boost the opposition PiS party that backed him. An SW Research poll for Rzeczpospolita daily showed that about a third of Poles thought Tusk's government would not survive until the end of its term in 2027. Polish presidents can veto legislation passed by the parliament, a power that will likely hamper reform efforts by Tusk's government, such as the planned introduction of same-sex partnerships or easing a near-total ban on abortion. It could also make ties with Brussels difficult, particularly over rule of law issues, as Nawrocki has expressed support for the controversial judicial reforms put in place by the previous PiS government. Ties with Ukraine could become more tense as Nawrocki opposes Ukraine's membership of NATO and has been critical of the support for Ukrainian refugees in Poland. Nawrocki is expected to begin his five-year mandate formally on August 6 once the election result has been legally validated. The election commission has found evidence of counting errors in favour of Nawrocki in some districts. Parliament speaker Szymon Holownia, a government ally, said there was 'no reason to question the result'. Tusk previously served as Polish prime minister from 2007-2014 and then as president of the European Council from 2014–2019. He resumed his leadership of the country as prime minister again in December 2023.
News.com.au
05-06-2025
- Lifestyle
- News.com.au
'Hurt': Ukrainians in Poland worried by rise of nationalists
For several months, Halyna Muliar watched Poland's presidential campaign from home in Poznan, worried as candidates swerved further to the right and increasingly aimed nationalist slogans at Poland's 1.5 million Ukrainians -- war refugees and economic migrants. The 58-year-old arrived in Poland weeks before Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and recalled, with emotion, the huge solidarity from Poles when an evacuation train from her hometown of Mykolaiv arrived with her daughter and other refugees. But three years later, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is part of mainstream Polish politics. This weekend, Poles elected as president nationalist Karol Nawrocki, who throughout his campaign questioned the rights of Ukrainians in Poland. "So much has changed," Muliar told AFP in Warsaw, where she had come from Poznan in the west to pick up a residency card. "I'm worried by everything that was said during the campaign." Nawrocki claimed Ukrainians "cause problems in hospital queues" and "should not live better than Poles", also accusing Kyiv of being ungrateful to its allies -- all arguments often used by the Polish far right. His rival, Rafal Trzaskowski, the pro-EU presidential candidate, had urged people not to give into "Russian narratives" about Ukraine. But -- in a failed bid to win far-right votes -- he still said some benefits paid out to Ukrainian refugees should be cut. For Muliar, the mood in Poland has seriously worsened. "First, it started with the documents, with the waits getting much longer," she told AFP. Many Ukrainians have experienced longer bureaucratic procedures to obtain documents legalising their presence in Poland. Then, she noticed social media was so full of anti-Ukrainian content she preferred not to open it. Before long, she was the victim of xenophobic comments in shops "to which I just close my eyes". She is not alone. Ukrainians in Warsaw who AFP spoke to -- refugees and migrants who have been living in Poland for years -- were alarmed by the unprecedented hard-right tone of the campaign. "The damage has been done," said Olena Babakova, a longtime observer of Polish-Ukrainian relations and of Poland's Ukrainian community. - 'Took away hope' - While the theme of migrants has dominated election campaigns in the conservative Catholic country for years, Babakova said this "for the first time became strictly directed against Ukrainians". Nationalist Nawrocki has often raised 20th-century grievances between Poland and Ukraine. The pro-EU camp also flirted with that rhetoric, which Babakova said "took away hope". She predicted the people worst affected by the trend would be Ukrainians working in the service sector -- mostly women who have the most contact with Poles and "paradoxically, really want to integrate in Polish society". Olga Klymenko is one of them. She is one of the one million Ukrainian refugees in Poland and works in a hotel. She fled Russian occupation in 2022, escaping Ukraine's city of Izyum under fire through Russia before obtaining asylum in Poland. "It hurts and worries me," she told AFP. "It's hard to know what tomorrow will bring." Like many, she worries about her status in Poland. There is much uncertainty among refugees over the future of legalisation processes. "My house is destroyed. If there is some pressure from Poland, I have nowhere to return to," Klymenko explained. Se said she was waiting to see what kind of president Nawrocki would turn out to be. The role of head of state is largely ceremonial in Poland but the president can veto government law. Nawrocki's victory has boosted the chances of a far-right win in the 2027 parliamentary elections. "If there are some laws and the president's programme is not in favour of Ukrainians, then I don't know what we'll do," Klymenko said. - 'From the top' - Poland's economy and ageing population are heavily reliant on a Ukrainian workforce. But Ukrainians who have been living in Poland for years have also been unnerved by the election campaign. Yulia Melnyk, who has been in Warsaw for seven years, was convinced the negative sentiment had been whipped up "from the top". "It's convenient for politicians to use this kind of topic," the transport worker said. She said she had seen "a lot of hate" on the internet but not, so far, "in real life". But she admitted: "I am worried, and my family in Ukraine is worried that there will be hate towards Ukraine from the authorities themselves." Ukrainian cook Serhiy, who has lived in Warsaw for six years, hoped the rhetoric was limited to a heated pre-election period. The 28-year-old is also waiting to see what Nawrocki would be like in power. "I hope he will focus less on populism and more on real problems," he said. oc/mmp/giv
