Stick or twist: Polish voters to reaffirm, reject Duda’s program

By Jerzy Butrym

Warsaw, Jul 12  (efe-epa).- Polish voters on Sunday are casting ballots in a presidential run-off that has pitted the conservative nationalist incumbent Andrzej Duda against liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski.

Both candidates made the cut in the first round of voting, which had been delayed due to coronavirus, on 28 June, with Duda coming out on top. They were neck and neck in the polls ahead of the second round.

For Duda, who is backed by the government Law and Justice (PiS) party, the vote is a public litmus test for his agenda of reforms.

Beata, a teacher and translator, said: “If the change we are waiting for doesn’t come, then I know what awaits us in our future in the European Union and the world.

“The mayor of Warsaw is much more European and cosmopolitan than the current president, who more than anything is the face and mouthpiece of others. Someone who never leaves Poland and never thinks about anything outside the country.”

Days before the first round of voting, Beata was briefly arrested during a protest against the censorship of an anti-authority song on a Polish radio station. The moment was filmed by politician Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bak and went viral in the European country.

In Beata’s opinion, Duda’s policies will make Poland more isolated and less open to the rest of the world.

In recent weeks, the election has been billed as a vote between two types of society.

Well-known Catholic priest Tadeusz Rydzyk described it in an interview with the newspaper Nasz Dziennik, which is part of his own media group, as a war of civilization .