Poland

Far-right leaders in Europe have welcomed the victory of the nationalist opposition candidate, Karol Nawrocki, in Poland’s presidential elections, a result that deals a huge blow to the centre-right prime minister Donald Tusk’s reform and pro-EU agenda.

Nawrocki, a conservative historian and former amateur boxer, won Sunday’s election with 50.89% of the vote, final figures showed on Monday, ahead of his rival, Rafał Trzaskowski, the liberal Warsaw mayor and an ally of Tusk, who secured 49.11%.

“Congratulations to President @NawrockiKn on his fantastic victory,” Hungary’s illiberal prime minister, Viktor Orbán, posted on social media, adding that he was “looking forward to working” with the 42-year-old, who has never held elected office.

Oh no! It’s those scary far-right leaders again!

Two leading right-wing MPs aligned with the former ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS), were prevented from entering the Polish Parliament (Sejm) by police Wednesday, after the Speaker of the Sejm, acting on a Supreme Court opinion, declared one of them no longer a member of the body.

Liberal media welcomes authoritarian turn by EU-backed Tusk government.

Poland’s political power struggle intensified on Tuesday as police stormed the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, arresting two former Law and Justice (PiS) ministers amid new claims of rising authoritarianism from the recently installed Donald Tusk administration.

Former interior minister and deputy interior minister Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik were snatched by police on abuse-of-power charges dating back to 2007, with both politicians decrying the arrests as politically motivated.

There is ongoing pandemonium at the headquarters of Poland’s state broadcaster TVP after high-ranking members of the conservative PiS party, including the country’s former prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński began a sit-down protest against a purge by the new Tusk government of PiS friendly executives.

A second exit poll in Poland has predicted the governing right-wing populist Law and Justice party won the most votes in Sunday’s election but will lose its majority in parliament.

If the official result, expected on Tuesday, confirms the second exit poll prediction – which has a 2% margin of error – it’s up to President Andrzej Duda, a former Law and Justice MP, to appoint a new prime minister to form a government.

Poland’s PiS Defiant as Progressives Claim Victory

Early indicators from Sunday’s Polish election point to the formation of a rainbow coalition of progressive parties, but conservative Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław Kaczyński insisted that “it is not over yet” as he expressed his wish to still form a majority government.

While the official vote count is still going on, exit polls released Sunday night indicate a better-than-expected showing for Poland’s liberal opposition, despite Donald Tusk’s Civil Coalition Party only performing roughly as well as in the last election. The ruling PiS party remained the largest party in terms of both parliamentary representation and popular support—a result that, if it holds, could herald many weeks of uncertainty for the Eastern European nation if true.

A Polish border guard was injured in an attack by illegal migrants on Saturday during another restless day at the Polish-Belarusian border.

The Polish Border Guard reported 78 illegal border crossing attempts on Saturday and another 54 attempts on Sunday as border officials continue to repel illegal migrants flown into Minsk who trek to the Polish border in a bid to reach the European Union.