Poland: President Duda on elections, “democracy has proven stable and mature”

“Democracy in Poland has proven to be stable and mature”, said the President of the Republic, Andrzej Duda, referring to yesterday’s parliamentary elections. On his visit to Rome to celebrate the 45th anniversary of John Paul II’s election to the papacy, Mr Duda emphasised the massive turnout in the elections, which seems to have exceeded all expectations. The Polish head of state, however, did not want to reveal to whom he intends to give the task of forming the new government, since the final results will only be announced tomorrow. Mr Duda, however, expressed great satisfaction with the smooth running of the vote and noted that there have been “many situations of possible interference in the vote” since Poland “is facing a war situation, there is fighting at the country’s eastern border and also a hybrid attack carried out by Belarus”. Commenting on the not yet final election results, Former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski said that if the conservative party (PiS), which has led the country for the past eight years, were given a mandate to form a new government, it would hardly win approval from the new Parliament. For his part, Lech Walesa, Nobel Peace Prize winner and first president of independent Poland in the years 1990-1995, said he was unsure about the final results of the vote, which he refused to comment on, adding he was worried about possible electoral fraud.
Anna T. Kowalewska