# Polish presidential election **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [May 31, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054 "2025-05-31T14:04:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054/1 "2025-05-31T14:04:44Z")
Down to the wire in a contest between confirming the most recent parliamentary election and the present government’s mainstream Western liberalism, and the previous government’s Orban-esque, Trump-lite, EU-disruptive conservatism. > **[Polish knife-edge presidential vote pits liberal mayor against conservative](https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0ln987g582o.amp)** > > Opinion polls say Rafal Trzaskowski and Karol Nawrocki are running neck and neck ahead of Sunday's vote. > **[Polish presidential election too close to call as campaigning enters final...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/may/30/europe-live-polish-presidential-election-final-campaigning-live-news-updates?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other)** > > Polls show difference between pro-European Rafał Trzaskowski and nationalist Karol Nawrocki within the margin of error ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054/2 "2025-05-31T14:58:18Z")
It sounds like this is a referendum on “Do you want to be conquered by Putin, yes or no?”, and they’re running neck and neck? How is that possible? ---
**Author:** ![MethidManTMA](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e95f7d/32.png) [@MethidManTMA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MethidManTMA)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054/3 "2025-05-31T15:14:21Z")
If there’s anything the past decade has taught me, it’s that propaganda is extremely effective in gaslighting a good portion of the population into thinking being boned up the ass is somehow a good thing. The question to at least half the voting population of Poland might as well be “Do you want the glorious leadership of Vladdy Daddy, yes or no?” ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054/4 "2025-05-31T16:22:24Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > It sounds like this is a referendum on “Do you want to be conquered by Putin, yes or no?”, and they’re running neck and neck? How is that possible? It happens. In Taiwan, the “let’s-cave-in-and-appease-China-and-Xi” candidate was leading by over 25% in the polls at one point in the 2020 election. He eventually lost, but yes, other nations can get really Trumpy. Recently in Romania, the pro-Russian candidate was leading and his eventual loss to the pro-EU pro-Western candidate was seen as a surprising upset. And in Hungary, Viktor Orban won 4 straight elections. But, from my limited skimming of the article, it appears the Putin angle is really only a part of it and it boils down more to the traditional-conservative Poles against the liberal-modernist Poles. If a conservative Pole dislikes abortion, likes Catholicism, and wants traditional family values and opposes LGBT, they may be willing to overlook the conservative candidate’s pro-Putin-ness. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054/5 "2025-05-31T16:52:22Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > And in Hungary, Viktor Orban won 4 straight elections. Just to be clear, while Orban is certainly an autocrat who has certain aligned interests with the Putin regime, Orban and Putin are not staunch allies and the cultural animosity between Hungarians and Russians (as well as competing interests) makes any inclination for Hungary to be a subservient client state (again) to Putin’s expansionist fantasies in the way Belarus is a complete non-starter in the same way that a permanent Russia-China alliance would be. > [@Velocity](#): > > But, from my limited skimming of the article, it appears the Putin angle is really only a part of it and it boils down more to the traditional-conservative Poles against the liberal-modernist Poles. If a conservative Pole dislikes abortion, likes Catholicism, and wants traditional family values and opposes LGBT, they may be willing to overlook the conservative candidate’s pro-Putin-ness. The ‘culture wars’ of domestic politics is certainly a divisive issue around the globe and especially in Eastern Europe which is easily exploited by propaganda, disinformation, and especially manipulation via social media which is something Russia has been doing for the last fifteen years. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2025, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054/6 "2025-05-31T16:54:28Z")
Look at who we elected _twice_ and try to tell me propaganda doesn’t work. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2025, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/polish-presidential-election/1019054/7 "2025-06-02T06:08:09Z")
Oh dear. So, situation more or less it has been since the parliamentary elections. > **[Nationalist Nawrocki wins Polish presidential election](https://www.politico.eu/article/liberal-rafal-trzaskowski-presidential-election-poland-donald-tusk-pis/)** > > Populist Karol Nawrocki, backed by the Law and Justice party and U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, beat liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski by 50.89 percent to 49.11 percent.