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Voters in Poland will cast their votes for a new president on Sunday. Observers say the closely fought election is the most important one in a generation for a country that has one of the best economic growth records in the world and one of the biggest militaries in Europe. NPR's Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz reports.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in Polish).
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: "Long live Poland" is the chant among thousands of supporters of Poland's far-right Law and Justice party, marching through Warsaw's Old Town. Many of them dressed in the red and white colors of the national flag.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in Polish).
SCHMITZ: Their chant morphs into a different one, Tusk to Berlin, a call for Prime Minister Donald Tusk - whose centrist Civic Coalition took control of Parliament from Law and justice in a surprise election win two years ago - to flee to Germany, Poland's Western neighbor who many right-wing voters blame for Europe's problems. The presidential solution for this patriotic crowd is Law and Justice candidate Karol Nawrocki, an historian-turned-politician who demands reparations from Germany for its crimes against Poland in World War II.
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KAROL NAWROCKI: (Speaking Polish).
SCHMITZ: "It is time," says Nawrocki to his flag-waving supporters, "for us to nurture our heritage and refuse to let our freedom be taken away and our sovereignty to be given up." Heritage, sovereignty - buzzwords among Law and Justice politicians who believe the open progressive policies of the European Union are watering down Poland's national and cultural identity.
JUSTINA KRAWCZYNSKA: (Speaking Polish).
SCHMITZ: Justina Krawczynska rests her Polish flag on her shoulder to tell me that this election is an existential one for Poland, when she says that Nawrocki needs to win to ensure Poland's sovereignty.
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RAFAL TRZASKOWSKI: (Speaking Polish).
SCHMITZ: Hundreds of kilometers southeast of Warsaw in Biala, a city along the border of Belarus, the front-runner for the Polish presidency, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, gives a speech at a campaign rally.
TRZASKOWSKI: (Speaking Polish).
SCHMITZ: "Anyone with common sense knows we need a strong European Union," says Trzaskowski, "and a strong Polish role within that union. A strong NATO and a strong EU mean a strong Poland and a secure Poland," he says. After the rally, Wieslaw Rubaj and Kristoff Kuchinski, both retired Air Force pilots, linger.
KRISTOFF KUCHINSKI: (Speaking Polish).
SCHMITZ: "Trzaskowski is an educated, worldly man, speaks several languages and even served in the European Parliament," says Kuchinski. "He was vice minister of European integration. He has a broad view of the world, and," he says, "we need that in a leader. On the other side, we have Nawrocki and his party. All they're trying to do," he says, "is push people back into church. Andrzej Bobinski, managing director of Polityka Insight, says that as an ally of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, there's a lot of pressure on Trzaskowski to win this race.
ANDRZEJ BOBINSKI: This is make or break for Tusk and for the counterrevolution that this ruling coalition has brought about.
SCHMITZ: That's because, he says, Tusk's government has become unpopular with many polls, and much like there's been in the rest of Europe, the popularity of the far right in Poland is again on the rise. Bobinski says, there's a lot that can happen in the time before Poland's next parliamentary election in 2027.
BOBINSKI: But if I were to guess, I'd guess that there's going to be a right-wing or even an extremely right-wing government in 2027. Then the president is super important, as somebody who will be basically checking the next government and will be an important safeguard of the constitutional order.
SCHMITZ: Latest polls show that Trzaskowski's European vision for Poland is winning out among voters. He's ahead of Nawrocki by at least 5%, but a third candidate from the libertarian Konfederacja Party will likely mean no single candidate will get a majority, forcing a runoff election on June 1. Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Poland. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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