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Rival marches draw thousands in Warsaw ahead of presidential vote
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 25, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on May 25, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Massive protests in Warsaw highlight Poland's crucial presidential election, with democratic reforms and EU relations at stake.
WARSAW (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Warsaw on Sunday to show support for candidates vying to win next week's tightly-contested presidential election in Poland that the government views as crucial to is efforts for democratic reform.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk hopes to galvanise support for his candidate, the liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, to replace the outgoing Andrzej Duda, a nationalist who has vetoed many of his efforts to reform the judiciary.
"All of Poland is looking at us. All of Europe is looking at us. The whole world is looking at us," Trzaskowski told supporters who waved red and white Polish flag and European Union flags.
Tusk swept into power in 2023 with a broad alliance of leftist and centrist parties, on a promise to undo changes made by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government that the European Union said had undermined democracy and women's and minority rights.
But Trzaskowski is struggling to secure a lead in opinion polls, after beating nationalist Karol Nawrocki by two percentage points in the first round of the election on May 18.
Nawrocki's voters, some wearing hats saying "Poland is the most important", gathered in a different part of the capital on Sunday to show support for his drive to align Poland more closely with U.S. President Donald Trump's policies.
"He is the best candidate, the most patriotic, one who can guarantee that Poland is independent and sovereign," said Jan Sulanowski, 42.
At Trzaskowski's march, the newly-elected president of Romania Nicusor Dan pledged to work closely with Tusk and Trzaskowski "to ensure Poland and the European Union remain strong".
Dan's unexpected victory in a vote on May 18 over a hard-right Trump supporter was greeted with relief in Brussels and other parts of Europe, as many were concerned that his rival George Simion would have complicated EU's efforts to tackle Russia's war in Ukraine.
(Reporting by Barbara Erling, Kuba Stężycki, Fatos Bytyci; editing by Barbara Lewis)
Tens of thousands of people are protesting in Warsaw to support candidates in the upcoming presidential election.
Rafal Trzaskowski is the liberal mayor of Warsaw and a candidate hoping to replace the outgoing President Andrzej Duda.
Trzaskowski is struggling to secure a lead in opinion polls, having narrowly beaten nationalist Karol Nawrocki in the first round.
Nawrocki's supporters gathered to show their backing for his campaign to align Poland more closely with the U.S. and promote national sovereignty.
The unexpected victory of Nicusor Dan in Romania was greeted with relief in Brussels, as many were concerned about his rival's hard-right stance.
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