Poland: postponement of the presidential election to June 28, too late for Andrzej Duda?

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Postponed due to the coronavirus epidemic, the presidential election in Poland will be held on June 28. But this date does not seem to do the business of President Andrzej Duda, increasingly closely watched and threatened in the polls by one of his opponents.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Warsaw, Thomas Giraudeau

The announcement had been anticipated for a few days. It was made official by the President of the Diet, the lower house of the Polish Parliament: initially planned for May and postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the presidential election will take place on June 28. It should be held in a mixed mode, with both a conventional vote, in polling stations, and a postal vote.

Too late for Andrzej Duda? Credited by more than 50% in the polls since the beginning of the epidemic, the outgoing president saw his rating decrease slowly but surely, to finally reach a little less than 40%. The blame for the economic consequences of the epidemic, which are beginning to be felt, and for the entry of a new player in the election race. 

In this case the mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, who became a candidate for the main opposition party. Charismatic, experienced, he has been walking around Poland for almost three weeks to meet voters. He promises them to keep the social gains created by the president's party and to invest massively in the health system. 

In the polls of the past few days, Trzaskowski is credited with 26% of the voting intentions, far behind the outgoing president. But in the second round, he would benefit from the carryover of votes from all the other opposition candidates, and could beat Andrzej Duda. Buoyed by the momentum of his recent candidacy, Rafal Trzaskowski must however collect at least 100,000 signatures of support to be able to run. He has less than a week for that.

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• Poland
• Andrzej Duda