Poland’s pro-USA President, Andrzej Duda, appears to have defeated a challenge by the more EU-leaning mayor of Warsaw, Rafel Trzaskowski. The BBC reports (abridged):
Poland’s incumbent President Andrzej Duda has narrowly beaten challenger Rafal Trzaskowski in Sunday’s presidential vote.
The National Electoral Commission said Mr Duda had won 51.2% of the votes.
It is Poland’s slimmest presidential election victory since the end of communism in 1989.
One of the major issues of the election was the future of the country’s strained relations with the European Union.
Mr Duda is a social conservative allied with the government led by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, while Mr Trzaskowski is the socially liberal mayor of Warsaw.
Mr Duda’s victory shows there is a strong electorate for social conservatism and generous state hand outs. But the closeness of the vote also suggests that many in Poland are uneasy about the government’s attempts to introduce a more illiberal democracy.
More on the ramifications of the race here form The Wall Street Journal.
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