Early May saw the postponement of Poland’s Presidential Elections after the Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) party-led governing coalition failed to agree on how and when they should be organised during the COVID-19 pandemic. Polish voters were then dealt another curveball when the opposition candidate Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, from the Civic Platform party (Platforma Obywatelska or PO), withdrew from the race on 15th May. On the same day, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski was announced as her replacement, subject to his ratification as an official candidate – although the gathering of the required 100,000 signatures is seen as a formality.
In this memo, we analyse some of the reasons for this turn of events, and look ahead to how the elections might play out, and what this could mean for the wider political stage in Poland.

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