Conservative- nationalist Andrzej Duda has actually been re-elected as Poland’s president, in a knife-edge election fight with the pro-European, centre-right Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski that divided the nation in 2.

Duda, an ally of the judgment Law and Justice (PiS) party, won 51.21 percent of the votes with Trzaskowski getting 48.79 percent, according to informal results by the National Electoral Commission (NEC) launched on Monday (11 July) early morning.

After Sunday’s vote, which saw the highest voter-turnout – close to 70 percent – considering that the fall of communism 30 years back, both Duda and Trzaskowski stated triumph.

Trzaskowski’s team has actually stated they are checking out abnormalities, such as Poles abroad, whose votes might have been mainly pro-trzaskowski and definitive, and who supposedly did not get their ballot plans in time.

The election might still be objected to at the Supreme Court, which would put the spotlight on Poland’s judiciary – whose self-reliance has actually currently been jeopardized by the federal government, according to an EU probe.

Duda’s triumph offers the PiS federal government continued control over the main political organizations, permitting it to even more deteriorate judicial self-reliance and political checks and balances, and continue its battles with the EU.

“This situation favours Andrzej Duda: not just because he’s slightly in the lead, but also because most of the country’s institutions have, over the past five years, become highly politicised and subordinated to the ruling party,” Piotr Buras and Pawel Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations, stated in a declaration, including: “This includes the Supreme Court, which is the one that will announce the final result of the election.”

“The dominance of the ruling party Law and Justice would remain almost unrestricted,” they stated.

Duda’s win, if verified, “would lead to further deterioration of the rule of law in Poland, pave the way for a complete state capture by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, and let it dismantle the country’s already damaged system of checks and balances – in a similar way that already happened in Hungary,” their analysis stated.

The election was essential for Poland’s future and its relationship with Europe.

A former MEP, 48- year-old Trzaskowski campaigned on reversing the democratic backsliding with the governmental veto power, and bring back balance in the political landscape.

Split nation

The vote has actually likewise clarified deep departments in Polish society, with citizens in the eastern part of the nation, over 50- years of ages, and generally from backwoods, supportingDuda

.

Duda’s win comes as PiS has actually controlled the public media and the state administration ahead of the election.

In the past couple of weeks, Duda’s allies implicated Germany of developing discord through media outlets seen as co-owned however independent by German business.

PiS political leaders likewise implicated Trzaskowski of not having a “Polish soul” or “Polish heart” for being open to a conversation on Jewish restitution of property lost throughout World War II, and other public media recommended Trzaskowski would be managed by Jewish interests.

Duda vowed to protect “family values” and battle “LGBT-ideology” in a campaign filled with homophobic rhetoric.

The post Poland’s EU-battles to continue as Duda wins tight vote appeared first on World Weekly News.