Poland election proving a test for president and populism

A crowded field of 11 candidates, all men, could make it harder for anyone to reach the required 50 per cent of votes on Sunday

Andrzej Duda delivers a speech for supporters during a campaign rally before Sunday’s presidential election (Getty)

Poland’s right-wing president Andrzej Duda is fighting for a second term in an election on Sunday that will test whether he was helped by a campaign that depicted LGBT+ rights as a dangerous “ideology”, and a last-minute reception by Donald Trump at the White House.

It will be another electoral test for populist leaders in Europe amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Last weekend, Serbia’s autocratic right-wing president Aleksandar Vucic strengthened his hold on power there in a parliamentary election that was boycotted by opposition parties.

The Polish election is widely seen as an important test for democracy, in this case in the fifth most populous country in the European Union.

A crowded field of 11 candidates, all men, could make it harder for anyone to reach the required 50 per cent of votes on Sunday, in which case a run-off will be held on 12 July.

Mr Duda is backed by Law and Justice, a nationalist, conservative party that is popular with many for introducing welfare spending programmes.

Those policies have eased hardships for older Poles and others left behind in the dramatic economic transformation since communism fell in 1989.

“Poland has changed. It has changed for the better,” Mr Duda said at a rally on Friday, while promising to keep working to make sure Poles achieve western European living standards.

Mr Duda and Law and Justice, both in power since 2015, have also triggered tensions with the EU and provoked repeated street protests at home over controversial laws giving the party control over the top courts and other key judicial bodies.

The EU has strongly condemned the judicial laws as violations of democratic standards. This year the US-based group Freedom House downgraded Poland in its ranking from “consolidated democracy” to “semi-consolidated democracy.”

“The destruction of the democratic state of law is close to completion,” said Jaroslaw Kurski, the editor of the liberal daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, in an appeal this week for readers to choose a democratic candidate.

“If we, citizens, democrats, do not mobilise, the next elections will be as ‘democratic’ as in Belarus, Russia or Hungary,” Mr Kurski wrote.

As he appeared to be losing support, Mr Duda seized on family values, vowing to protect Polish families from the propagation of “LGBT+ ideology” in public institutions.

The election will take place four days after Mr Duda was hosted at the White House by Mr Trump, who praised Poland for its “rule of law”.

Associated Press