{"id":3754,"date":"2025-04-15T11:22:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2025-04-15T11:22:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T15:22:31","slug":"polands-divisions-on-display-as-presidential-candidates-bicker-in-a-live-tv-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/?p=3754","title":{"rendered":"Poland\u2019s divisions on display as presidential candidates bicker in a live TV debate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WARSAW, Poland (AP) \u2014 Bickering and chaos overshadowed a presidential debate in Poland<\/a> on Friday evening as eight candidates met to discuss existential matters for this country on NATO\u2019s eastern flank \u2014 including fears of Russia over its war in Ukraine and concerns about President Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a> commitment to Europe\u2019s security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland is voting on May 18 to elect a new president as the outgoing leader, Andrzej Duda<\/a>, nears the end of his second and final five-year term. If no candidate wins at least 50% of the vote, a runoff will take place June 1 between the top two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heated discussions on display Friday underscored the deep division in this nation of 38 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poland\u2019s rural heartland<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The debate was held in Konskie, a provincial town of 32,000 in central Poland seen as the kind of place crucial to winning an election in a country with many rural, conservative voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It had the appearance of an unscripted, chaotic show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, there were in fact two debates \u2014 the first one took place outdoors and was broadcast by two right-wing stations with rowdy onlookers whistling and booing candidates they didn\u2019t like. A left-wing candidate, Joanna Senyszyn, arrived late, joining the others about 20 minutes after the event began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the candidates moved to an indoor studio for the main debate, broadcast by the traditional broadcasters, TVN, TVP and Polsat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some clarity came across. The candidates were asked about whether they want a return to compulsory conscription in the army. The frontrunners said they don\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were asked what a president should do to ensure energy stability in Poland, which has been trying to free itself from Russian energy. They variously stressed support for renewable sources, nuclear energy or relying more on Poland\u2019s own coal. Only one said he supported using Russian energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until the last moment it wasn\u2019t clear if the debate would happen at all, or in what format, amid arguments over who should be included and who not, and over which of the television broadcasters should be allowed to transmit the debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The candidates<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Friday\u2019s debate was originally meant to include only the two top candidates, liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafa\u0142 Trzaskowski and conservative historian Karol Nawrocki.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But others contenders protested that format, saying it was unfair to exclude them. They ended up traveling to Konskie and demanding they be included as well. At the last moment they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nawrocki, 42, also protested the exclusion of the two right-wing stations \u2014 TV Republika and wPolsce24 \u2014 from being allowed to broadcast the debate. Many from his political camp consider TVN and TVP to be biased against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trzaskowski, a 53-year-old from Prime Minister Donald Tusk\u2019s pro-European Union party is the frontrunner<\/a>, with over 30% in recent polls. He is followed in most polls by Nawrocki, the director of a state historical institute backed by Law and Justice, the national conservative party that governed Poland from 2015-23. Nawrocki has been polling at a bit over 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Trzaskowski \u2014 who only attended the second debate Friday \u2014 cannot rest easy as Nawrocki could expect to pick up in the second round some support now going to a far-right candidate, S\u0142awomir Mentzen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mentzen has enjoyed a surge in popularity, especially among young men, part of a larger rise of far-right populists across Europe. He seemed to be surging ahead of Nawrocki briefly, but slipped back to third place after calling for an end to free university tuition and saying be believes abortion should be banned \u2014 even in cases where a pregnancy results from rape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mentzen did not join either of the debates, saying he didn\u2019t want to take part in a \u201ccircus.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fighting over a rainbow flag<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Nawrocki clearly seeks to tap into conservative voters. His campaign has been trying to highlight Trzaskowski\u2019s support for rights of the LGBTQ+ community to discredit him with conservatives<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the debate, Nawrocki carried a little rainbow flag and put it on Trzaskowski\u2019s podium, and Trzaskowski removed it, telling him: \u201cYou have an obsession with gays.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, a left-wing lawmaker, Magdalena Biejat, walked across the stage, took the flag and placed it proudly on her podium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anxiety over war in Ukraine<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Located on the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union, Poland has been a strong supporter of Kyiv, supplying its ally with weapons and openings its door to Ukrainian refugees. Fears have been high since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine<\/a> in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Szymon Ho\u0142ownia, the parliament speaker, openly accused another candidate, Maciej Maciak \u2014 who earlier in the debate expressed support for cheap Russian energy \u2014 of working for Russian President Vladimir Putin. \u201cTell me, do you take money from Putin or do you do it as a volunteer?\u201d he told him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding to the anxiety are concerns that Trump could withdraw the 10,000 American troops in Poland, or the U.S. support for NATO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this week, some Poles voiced worries after the United States said it was relocating personnel and military equipment from the Jasionka airport near Rzesz\u00f3w, the hub for Western weapons headed to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

U.S. and Polish authorities stressed that the U.S. was simply withdrawing to other locations in Poland, but the surprise announcement nonetheless trigged concerns that it could be a sign of further withdrawals later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARSAW, Poland (AP) \u2014 Bickering and chaos overshadowed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3756,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3754\/revisions\/3756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}