Thousands rally in Warsaw for Polish presidency rivals

WARSAW: Tens of thousands of people rallied in central Warsaw on Sunday in rival demonstrations for the two candidates in Poland´s presidential election on June 1.

Warsaw´s pro-EU mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who is backed by Poland´s centrist government, will square off against nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki. As they marched, Nawrocki´s supporters sang patriotic and religious songs and held up signs calling for an end to immigration.

“Change is coming. We will win!”, Nawrocki told the crowd. “I am Polish and so I am voting for a candidate who will guarantee our future and act as a counterbalance to the current government,” said Piotr Slaby, a financial sector worker from the city of Przemysl in southeastern Poland.

Piotr Nowak, a technician from Warsaw, 41, said: “We have a cosmopolitan government. They want to introduce the euro and we will lose our sovereignty.” Organisers estimated there were around 200,000 people at the Nawrocki rally while Prime Minister Donald Tusk said 500,000 people had attended the pro-Trzaskowski rally. But an analysis by the Onet media outlet estimated the size of the Nawrocki rally at 70,000 and the Trzaskowski one at up to 160,000.

Opinion polls are predicting a dead heat next Sunday, with both candidates on 46.3 percent. Trzaskowski, 53, won the first round of the election on May 18 by a razor-thin margin, getting 31 percent against 30 percent for 42-year-old Nawrocki.

The job of Polish president comes with the power to veto laws, which has often held back Tusk´s government under the current nationalist president Andrzej Duda. Victory for Trzaskowski would be a major boost for Tusk, a former European Council chief who returned to power in 2023 parliamentary elections. A win for Nawrocki -- a fan of US President Donald Trump -- would probably extend the political deadlock in the Central European country of 38 million people.

Experts predict this could lead to fresh parliamentary elections. A Nawrocki win could also undermine Poland´s steadfast support for Kyiv, as he opposes NATO membership for Ukraine and has denounced the benefits given to the one million Ukrainian refugees living in Poland.

At the Trzaskowski rally, many supporters could be seen waving European Union and LGBTQ flags. “These elections are about being able to build, create and not destroy,” the candidate told supporters.

“Everyone can fit under the white-and-red flag” of Poland, he said, giving examples of heterosexual and same-sex couples. Irek Kurnik, a 52-year-old businessman, said a vote for Trzaskowski was “the only way to go towards Europe” instead of Russia.

“Choosing between the two candidates is like choosing between night and day, and we choose day,” he told AFP. Romanian president-elect Nicusor Dan, a pro-EU centrist who is due to be sworn in on Monday in his country, also attended the Trzaskowski march.

Dan won a tense election this month against nationalist rival George Simion, who had campaigned against the EU´s “absurd policies” and wanted to cut aid to Ukraine. Olivia, 20, a student who declined to give her last name, said she supported Trzaskowski “above all because he wants to protect LGBTQ people and women´s rights on the issue of abortion”. Trzaskowski has vowed to campaign for women´s rights and legalise abortion in the predominantly Catholic country, which has a near-total ban on the procedure.