The Polish elections have been concluded and the nation has re-elected the highly Eurosceptic Andrzej Duda as president. This was announced, following a closely fought contest by the Polish national election commission this morning.
Mr Duda, who heads up the ‘Law and Justice party’ loos set to continue with significant judicial reforms which has caused considerable friction with the European Union. Almost all of the ballots counted have now been counted and Mr Duda looks to have secured 51.2 percent while Mr Duda’s liberal challenger, Rafal Trzaskowski who is the the mayor of Warsaw collected 48.8 percent.
Original exit polls showed a tremendously close contest, but as the results became clear Mr Duda’s margin of victory widened. The Law and Justice’s deputy prime minister Jadwiga Emilewicz offered her summarisation of the reasoning behind this, she said “people are ashamed of voting for the right, which means that exit polls underestimate support, because people are afraid of being excluded from their social circles by admitting their vote”.
Law and Justice’s overhaul of the judiciary has caused huge tensions between Warsaw and the European Union. The EU has accused Poland of damaging democratic values and institutions via these reforms. In addition to this his rival Mr Trzaskowski, a Europhile politician had promised to rebuild the strained relationship between Warsaw and Brussels.
Considerable reaction has come in from this result with the Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage saying via Twitter : “Good to see a Eurosceptic win in Poland”. In contrast Guy Verhofstadt has said: “Important that President Duda drops his divisive and populist attacks on minorities to unite the Polish people. This means listening to young Poles, who voted massively for a future at the heart of a strong Europe”.
Current Affairs Correspondent | My name is Oliver Down I am 22, and a staunch brexiteer. I am a Bristolian lad who studied politics in Leicester. I believe in free speech and accurate journalism and I won’t be afraid to give you “the other side” of the story!
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