(ANSA-AFP) - WARSAW, 14 LUG - Polish President Andrzej Duda
squeezed past a europhile rival to win re-election, official
results showed Monday, but the narrow victory put allies in the
populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party on the back
foot. Seeking close ties with US President Donald Trump, Duda
has vowed to tighten already restrictive laws against abortion,
and campaigned against LGBT rights. The incumbent won a new
five-year term with 51 percent of Sunday's vote against 49
percent for Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who had
vowed to mend ties with the European Union. European Commission
president Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Duda on his win,
tweeting that she looks "forward to working with him on the many
challenges Europe and Poland have to face together." Experts
said the result means the governing PiS party, which has been
criticised at home and abroad for reforms of the judiciary seen
as eroding democratic freedoms, will face a more confident
opposition. "President Duda has won the election but the real
success is for Rafal Trzaskowski and the opposition which has
gained ground," said Kazimierz Kik, a political expert from
Kielce University. Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a Warsaw University
political scientist, warned there was a "realistic" risk that
Poland could begin to resemble Hungary, which has been accused
of drifting towards authoritarianism under nationalist Prime
Minister Viktor Orban. - 'Poland divided in two' - After
congratulating Duda on Monday, Trzaskowski called on the
president to "free himself from his political party", adding: "I
hope the president will display more independence in his second
term." Trzaskowski vowed to work hard "to sew Poland back
together", a sentiment echoed by Duda, who asked supporters to
"help me glue our Poland together" by respecting those with
different views. The government must now deal with fallout of
the coronavirus pandemic, which is pushing Poland into a
recession -- the country's first since communism fell three
decades ago. "Poland is split down the middle," remarked Witold
Orlowski, a professor at Warsaw University of Technology
Business School who forecast "a very difficult period" ahead.
"On the one hand, even this slim victory is a PiS success and
will allow it to continue to govern, at least technically,"
Orlowski said. "On the other hand the social and economic
situation will deteriorate and a large part of the electorate
will blame the PiS." Internationally, experts said Duda's close
ties with Trump could also spell trouble ahead if the US
president fails to win re-election in November. Duda's support
was particularly strong among older voters in rural areas and
small towns and in the east of the country, while Trzaskowski
did well with a younger electorate in larger cities and western
regions on the border with Germany. "The result of these
elections is a Poland divided in two with a not-so-rosy future,
as it will be difficult to ease the division and to restore the
relationship between the two sides," Kik told AFP. - White-red
vs rainbow - The election was to take place in May but was
delayed because of the virus. Four days before the first round,
Duda became the first foreign leader to visit the White House
since the pandemic struck, and was praised by Trump for doing an
"excellent job". Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro characterised
the second round vote as "a clash of two visions of Poland, the
white-red and rainbow-coloured," referring to the colours of
Poland's national flag and the symbol widely used by the LGBT
community. Duda has railed against "LGBT ideology", likening it
to a new form of communist brainwashing, and has vowed to change
the constitution to rule out adoptions by same-sex couples.
(ANSA-AFP).
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