Poles rally behind competing candidates and visions as presidential runoff nears

WARSAW, Poland -- Poles traveled from across the country to join dueling patriotic marches in Warsaw on Sunday, led by the two men vying for the presidency in a June 1 runoff election expected to be both close and consequential for the nation’s future.

At the head of one march is Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, a liberal urbanite who supports abortion rights and LGBTQ+ inclusion. A close political ally of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, he is backed by Tusk’s pro-European Civic Coalition, which has led a centrist coalition government since late 2023.

Trzaskowski previously ran for president in 2020, narrowly losing to incumbent Andrzej Duda, whose second and final five-year term ends this summer.

Opposite him is Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian backed by the national conservative Law and Justice party, which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023. He heads the state-backed Institute of National Remembrance, which under Law and Justice became a vehicle for nationalist historical narratives.

Earlier this month, the White House released photos of Nawrocki and U.S. President Donald Trump meeting in the Oval Office — a tacit but unmistakable show of Trump’s support.

Recently, allegations surfaced that Nawrocki swindled an elderly man out of an apartment — but his supporters in Warsaw on Sunday said they didn't believe the allegations.

Many of those who joined Sunday’s marches had traveled from across Poland, a country of nearly 38 million, not just to support a candidate but to rally behind sharply divergent visions for the nation’s future.

“It’s high time for honesty to win. It’s high time for integrity to win. It’s high time for justice to win,” Trzaskowski told his supporters at the start of his march. “This is what these elections are about. We have literally the last few days ahead of us. We need full determination, every vote is needed.”

The runoff follows a first-round vote on May 18 that narrowed the initial field of 13 candidates to Trzaskowski and Nawrocki. Recent polls show them running neck-and-neck, within the margin of error, making the outcome impossible to predict.

Both men are now courting voters who backed the hard-right libertarian Sławomir Mentzen, who won nearly 15% in the first round. Known for his nationalist rhetoric and pro-market views, Mentzen had a strong presence on TikTok and received 35% of the vote among 18- to 29-year-olds, according to an Ipsos exit poll.

Nawrocki supporters told The Associated Press ahead of the march that they saw him as the embodiment of the conservative, patriotic values they grew up with. They voiced opposition to abortion and LGBTQ+ rights, and said Nawrocki — like Trump — would restore what many called “normality.”

Trzaskowski supporters countered that their candidate would better protect the country’s interests by strengthening ties with European partners such as France and Germany. In their view, those alliances are vital to Poland’s security, especially in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine and fears that a victorious Russia could seek to reassert control over parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

During its eight years in power, Law and Justice was accused by the European Union of undermining democratic norms, particularly judicial independence and press freedom. Trzaskowski has pledged to support Tusk’s efforts to restore the independence of Poland’s judiciary — something that the conservative President Duda has stymied.

Romanian President-elect Nicusor Dan, a pro-EU centrist who pulled off an upset in Romania’s presidential election to beat out a hard-right nationalist, traveled to Warsaw, meeting with Tusk and joining the march.

While Law and Justice turned state-funded media into instruments of political propaganda, critics say Tusk’s government has also politicized public broadcasting — albeit in a less overt and aggressive fashion.