Duda says 'post-communists' seeking to undermine election results

Polish President Andrzej Duda has warned that "post-communists" and "liberal-left" actors are trying to overturn the recent presidential election, won by the right-wing candidate Karol Nawrocki.

Andrzej Duda. Fot. PAP/Darek Delmanowicz

Nawrocki, who was supported by Law and Justice (PiS), a socially-conservative party that ruled Poland in 2015-2023, received 50.89 percent of the votes in the June 1 run-off election, beating liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, backed by the main governing party, the centrist Civic Coalition, who got 49.11 percent.

Duda, a PiS ally, threw his weight behind Nawrocki during the presidential campaign and has expressed satisfaction with him winning the ballot.

However, soon after the election, Polish media started reporting on various irregularities during the vote, including the switching of support for the two candidates in at least two polling stations, with Nawrocki being assigned Trzaskowski's votes and vice versa, a mistake that favoured the right-wing candidate in both cases.

Duda reacted to the controversies in an X post on Monday:

"Attention! There is an impression that post-communists in collaboration with liberal-left (actors - PAP) want to overturn the recent, already resolved presidential election in Poland and take away our freedom of choice," the incumbent wrote. "Let's not give in, we, the voters! Let's not allow (them - PAP) to take away those remains of democracy and freedom that we have been left with after December 13, 2023 (when the current Donald Tusk government took over power from PiS - PAP). Let's keep an eye on Poland!"

The difference between the two presidential candidates was 369,591 votes.

Nawrocki will be sworn-in on August 6. (PAP)

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