Shock result in Polish vote could signal larger power shift

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — President Bronislaw Komorowski lost the first round of the country’s presidential election to a previously unknown 42-year-old member of the European Parliament, in what is being called the biggest shock in Polish politics in years.

The defeat for the communist-era dissident, who has long polled as one of the nation’s most trusted leaders, is a sign that parliamentary elections this fall could be unpredictable.

It could even signal a possible return to power for Law and Justice, the right-wing group backing Sunday’s winning presidential candidate Andrzej Duda.

A runoff in two weeks will decide the final outcome. In the first round, Komorowski took 33.8 percent of the votes compared to 34.8 percent for Duda, according to official results released early Tuesday. In all there were 11 candidates.

The result is undeniably a defeat for Komorowski, a center-right leader who earlier this year was expected to easily win far above 50 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff altogether.

When Law and Justice ran the government once before, from 2005-2007, Poland clashed repeatedly with officials in Brussels and ties with ally Germany grew strained. The party has also been extremely critical of Russia. Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the death of his twin brother, the late President Lech Kaczynski, in a 2010 plane crash. No evidence has emerged to back up his theory.

Adam Michnik, editor of the influential daily Gazeta Wyborcza, wrote of what he called the “suspicion and fear” that reigned in Poland at the time, when the government fought corruption and the influence of former communists in ways that many Poles felt amounted to excessive state intrusion.

Another commentator, Pawel Wronski, called Sunday’s apparent results “the biggest surprise in Polish politics in the last years.”

Komorowski’s poor showing reflects growing dissatisfaction with the way the country is going under Civic Platform, a business friendly party which has been in power since 2007. The party was founded by the former prime minister, Donald Tusk, now head of the European Council. Commentators say Komorowski has suffered from being closely identified with the party and not opposing its more unpopular proposals, such as raising the retirement age.

The strong showing in the presidential race for Pawel Kukiz, a former punk rock musician with an anti-establishment message, was another sign that Poles are disgruntled. Kukiz came third with 20.8 percent of the vote after campaigning for Poland to introduce single-member constituencies like in Britain to replace the current party list system, part of a larger message that the system is rotten.

Kukiz argues that choosing individual candidates rather than parties in electing lawmakers to parliament will be more transparent and give voters more influence.

The final outcome will depend a lot on where those protest votes go in the runoff, to be held May 24.

Already on Monday Komorowski signaled a desire to fight for the Kukiz voters, announcing plans for a referendum on single-mandate constituencies. He said the referendum would also include propositions on ending the funding of political parties from tax money and the protection of taxpayers in disputes with state financial authorities.

To the outside world, it might seem strange that Poles would feel frustrated given that the country has one of the fastest growing economies in Europe.

But many Poles, especially those in the countryside, are not enjoying higher wages, job security or other economic benefits that seem to be going only to certain groups.

The most striking example of the malaise is the more than 2 million Poles who have emigrated since Poland joined the EU in 2004 seeking economic opportunities in Britain and elsewhere. Surveys show that many more want to join them. Kukiz has called the exodus an “extermination” of the Polish people.

Other problems include a flawed public health system and a dysfunctional bureaucracy.

Sunday’s voting was a catastrophe for the left. The two left-wing candidates together only took a projected 4 percent.

In reaction, several academics announced Monday that they are forming their own left-wing group ahead of fall elections, warning in an open letter that Poland is facing “the threat of total domination of public and political life by right-wing circles, including those on the extreme right.”

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