Poles are set to vote on Sunday in a knife-edge presidential election with major implications for the country’s role in Europe and for abortion and LGBTQ rights.<\/p>\n
Warsaw’s pro-EU mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, 53, an ally of the centrist government, faces off against nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki, 42.<\/p>\n
Opinion polls predict an extremely close race with Nawrocki on 50.1 percent and Trzaskowski on 49.9 percent, a tiny difference within the margin of error.<\/p>\n
Polls are open between 0500 GMT and 1900 GMT in the EU and NATO country, which borders Ukraine and has been a key supporter of its neighbour against Russia.<\/p>\n
An exit poll is expected as soon as ballots close and election officials predict the final result will be known on Monday.<\/p>\n
A victory for Trzaskowski would be a major boost for the progressive agenda of the government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council president.<\/p>\n
It could mean significant social changes such as the introduction of civil partnerships for same-sex couples and an easing of the near-total ban on abortion.<\/p>\n
Presidents in Poland, a fast-growing economy of 38 million people, have the power to veto legislation and are also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces.<\/p>\n
Victory for\u00a0Nawrocki would embolden the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, and could lead to fresh parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
Many Nawrocki supporters want stricter curbs on immigration and advocate for conservative values and more sovereignty for the country within the European Union.<\/p>\n
“We should not give in to European pressure,” 40-year-old Agnieszka Prokopiuk, a homemaker, said ahead of the vote.<\/p>\n
“We need to make our own way… and not succumb to trends from the West,” she told AFP in the city of Biala Podlaska in eastern Poland near the Belarus border.<\/p>\n
Tomasz Czublun, a 48-year-old mechanic, said: “The European Union is important but the sovereignty of our country is much more important.”<\/p>\n
– Ukraine –<\/p>\n
Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a politics expert, called the election “a real clash of civilisations” because of the wide policy differences between the candidates.<\/p>\n
Many Trzaskowski voters support greater integration within the EU and an acceleration of social reforms.<\/p>\n
Malgorzata Wojciechowska, a tour guide and teacher in her fifties, said Polish women “unfortunately do not have the same rights as our European friends”.<\/p>\n
“I hope that Rafal Trzaskowski will relaunch the debate on abortion so that we can finally live in a free country where we can have our own opinion,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n
The election is also being closely watched in Ukraine, which is seeking to bolster international diplomatic support in its negotiations with Russia as its resistance to Moscow’s invasion grinds on.<\/p>\n
Nawrocki,\u00a0an admirer of US President Donald Trump, opposes NATO membership for Kyiv and has called for curbs on benefits for the estimated one million Ukrainian refugees in Poland.<\/p>\n
He used his last campaign hours on Friday to leave flowers at a monument to Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War II.<\/p>\n
“It was a genocide against the Polish people,” he said.<\/p>\n
The election’s final result is expected to hinge on whether Trzaskowski can mobilise enough supporters and whether far-right voters will cast their ballots for Nawrocki.<\/p>\n
Far-right candidates got more than 21 percent of the vote in the election’s first round, which Trzaskowski won by a razor-thin margin of 31 percent against 30 percent for Nawrocki.<\/p>\n
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