His critics have nicknamed him the "bazur" candidate ("hello" with a Polish accent) to brand him as the representative of the elite. Multilingual and fluent in French, English, Italian and Spanish, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, 53, eventually found amusement in it himself on social media, at the end of a presidential campaign marked by a deep divide between pro-Europeans and pro-Americans fascinated by the Trump model and openly supporting a Europe of nations, a concept increasingly popular within the ranks of the European radical right.

Favored among 12 other candidates in the first round of voting, scheduled for Sunday, May 18, the candidate of the Civic Coalition (KO, centrist) led by the current prime minister, Donald Tusk – who was the president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019 – is expected to face, barring any surprises, Karol Nawrocki, 42, a historian and amateur boxer supported by the nationalist-conservative party Law and Justice (PiS), which ruled for eight years before being defeated in the legislative elections of October 2023. Elected as an MP in the Diet that year, Slawomir Mentzen, 38, a wealthy entrepreneur and candidate of the far-right alliance Confederation Liberty and Independence (Konfederacja Wolnosc i Niepodleglosc), is projected to come in third place.

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