Poland’s Presidential Elections: political transition, migration, war, security

European politicians cheered when Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform won the 2023 parliamentary elections in Poland. Expectations were high: the new government would revert ultraconservative trends, reinstate the rule of law, free the media, liberalize abortion, to mention a few issues. Two years later, Donald Tusk suspended the right to asylum on the border to Belarus and plans to leave Ottawa Agreement, Abortion has not been legalized. On 18 May 2025, Poland holds presidential elections. Campaigns indicate that candidates are trying to outdo one another in their attempts to win over conservative voters. Balkan Insight writes: “Gavin Rae, a sociologist at Warsaw’s Kozminski University, says the candidates are mainly competing “on the right, on war and immigration, on who is the most militaristic and ready to spend more on the military.” The difficulty for PiS, Rae tells BIRN, is that “Tusk has moved so far to the right on these issues, that there is not much room left to compete with him.”” Wojciech Szacki, Bartosz T. Wieliński, and Marek Świerczyński will explore political issues at stake, different aspects of the transition process from PiS to Civic Platform and country’s militarization. SPEAKERS: Wojciech Szacki, head of political desk, Polityka Insight. From 2002-2012, he was a journalist at Gazeta Wyborcza, focusing on party politics and opinion polls. Szack co-hosts “Nasłuch” podcast, and writes for Polityka weekly. He graduated in law at the University of Warsaw in 2002.