Polish voters will go to the polls on Sunday 28 June for the first round of a particularly hectic presidential election. The election was originally scheduled for 10 May, but the pandemic led many participants and political opponents of the PiS, as well as a number of international observers, to request that it be postponed, although the authorities had wanted to hold the election by post.
The government finally agreed to extend the deadline after many candidates complained that Covid-19 had prevented them from campaigning. The Commission itself suggested that elections held in difficult circumstances should provide all the necessary guarantees for independence and fair access to the vote.
The Polish presidential election will pit the country’s current president, Andrzej Duda (PiS), the first-round favourite, against the mayor of Warsaw, the liberal Rafal Trzaskowski, who is considered his main rival, but also against Polish S&D MEP Robert Biedroń, who is also a presidential candidate.
Speaking to the press on 26 June alongside German MEP Jens Geier (S&D), the MEP confirmed the other candidates’ difficulty in campaigning, with the Pole citing the advantage enjoyed by the country’s current president, who was able to visit factories (e.g. hand sanitiser factories) during the crisis and appear in the media when the others could not get out on the ground.
He also said he was wary of expedient announcements from the government and, in particular, those from the PiS president, Jarosław Kaczyński, on pay inequality. “You can’t become progressive overnight”, he said ironically, given that the campaign is also marked by anti-LGBTI rhetoric.
Fundamental rights
Mr Duda in particular has in recent weeks made numerous statements on this issue, including a commitment that if elected he would not allow LGBTI issues to be discussed in schools. MEPs have expressed their concerns on this subject (see EUROPE 12505/22).
The International Planned Parenthood Federation European Network (IPPF) also sounded the alarm about the 23 June signing by the Polish President of a new law as part of the fourth package of “pandemic-related measures”.
This law, which amends the Penal Code, establishes, among other things, penalties for insulting the President, petty theft, and medical errors, as well as prison sentences of up to 8 years for performing abortions outside the limits of Polish law, one of the most restrictive in Europe, IPPF recalls.
Abortion is indeed legal in Poland only in order to save the life or preserve the health of women, when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or in situations of serious foetal abnormality. The latter exception, however, is currently threatened by a controversial bill (see EUROPE 12467/25), the rejection of which was called for last April by several political groups in the European Parliament. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic and Agathe Cherki)