Warsaw Mayor concedes defeat on presidential run-off

(13 Jul 2020) Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski has conceded defeat in Poland's presidential runoff election and congratulated President Andrzej Duda for winning a second term.
In a briefing to reporters in Warsaw on Monday, Trzaskowski also thanked his nearly 10 million voters and said his own strong showing in the very close race would be the catalyst for a new movement by the opposition.
Trzaskowski, a former European Parliament lawmaker who jumped into the race late, said he wanted to protect the country's democratic values and unite the divided society, while preserving the popular welfare policies.
He represented the centrist opposition Civic Platform party, which held power from 2007 to 2015. It oversaw strong economic growth but is now blamed by many for allowing the gap to grow between the rich and poor.
As the race tightened in recent weeks, Duda turned further to the right in search of votes. He denounced  the LGBT rights movement  as an “ideology” worse than communism.
Trzaskowski, as mayor, had signed a tolerance declaration for LGBT people in his city that triggered a nationwide backlash last year. The ruling party leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, denounced LGBT rights as a foreign import that threatens Polish identity.
Duda received 51.08% of Sunday's vote with 99.98% of the districts reporting, the state electoral commission said. Trzaskowski, got 48.92%.
Duda, a conservative, ran a campaign with homophobic and anti-Semitic overtones, but  promissed to continue the populist ruling party's social spending programs.
Duda's supporters celebrated what they saw as a clear mandate for him and the right-wing ruling party that backs him, Law and Justice, to continue on a path that has reduced poverty but raised concerns that democracy is under threat.
Critics and human rights groups expressed concerns that Duda's victory would boost illiberal tendencies not only at home but also within the European Union, which has struggled to halt an erosion of rule of law in Hungary under Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

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