By Vanessa Gera
https://muckrack.com/vanessa-gera
Poland’s conservative president, Andrzej Duda, was the frontrunner in Sunday’s election, but fell short of the 50% of votes needed to win in the first round, according to the projection of an exit poll.
The results, if confirmed, pave the way for what is building into a very tight race in July 12 runoff that will most likely pit the populist incumbent against the centrist Warsaw mayor, Rafal Trzaskowski, who was in second place.
Whether Duda ultimately wins a second five-year term in two weeks’ time will determine whether the ruling nationalist party that backs him, Law and Justice, keeps its near-monopoly on political power in Poland.
The party has been in conflict with the European Union over laws that have given it control over top courts and key judicial bodies, something the 27-nation bloc has denounced as an erosion of democratic European values.
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