On Sunday, a pivotal presidential election in Poland was too close to call, the exit polls putting the two contenders almost in the elbow and the neck when the vote ended and an official count of the ballots began.
Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, seemed to be closely in advance during the runoff elections, but by such a small margin that he was not clear if he would prevail in the official statement of the vote due on Monday.
Mr. Trzaskowski nevertheless won the victory.
“Dear ladies and gentlemen – We won!” He told supporters Sunday evening in Warsaw. “I think the term” thin victory of the razor “will enter the Polish language.”
The results of a generally reliable exit survey, broadcast by public and private television stations Sunday evening after the polling stations are closed, gave Mr. Trzaskowski a small advantage, with 50.3% of the vote. His rival, Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist historian supported by the previous right in Poland, the party, the law and the justice, had 49.7%.
Nawrocki told his own supporters after the output survey data came out that the official results show him the winner. “Dear people, we will win,” he said. “Tonight we will win and save Poland.”
The participation rate was 72.8%, the highest in a Polish presidential election since the first free and direct vote for the presidency in 1990, when Lech Walesa, the head of the Solidarity Syndicate, won after the collapse of communism.
The election has been largely considered a test to know if populist nationalism is an increasing or retreating force in Europe and beyond. A hard fighting campaign attracted supporters and enemies of President Trump on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Trump administration, as well as Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and other right -wing politicians, including the Defeated the nationalist candidate for Trump management In a recent presidential election in Romania, was rooted for Mr. Nawrocki. The traditional political forces of Europe argued Mr. Trzaskowski.
The elections include the question of whether Polish voters want a president who can work with the central government of Poland, the centrist Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, or who oppose it. The proximity of the breed highlighted the polarization of Poland between the nationalist right -wing nationalist forces opposed to Mr. Tusk and the centrists who support him.
The election of Mr. Trzaskowski, which was supported by Mr. Tusk’s party, the civic platform, would probably end a long period of political blocking which began when law and justice lost the majority in Parliament during an election of 2023 but retained control of the separate elected presidency.
The presidency is a largely ceremonial role, but the president has the right of veto on the legislation adopted by the Parliament. The term and term president, Andrzej Duda, used this power to hinder the efforts of Mr. Tusk’s government to reverse the inheritance of eight years of populist regime by law and justice.
A victory for Mr. Nawrocki would continue and hardly harden this dead end.
Anatol Magdziarz Contributed reports.
