The presidential race will have a big say on whether Poland plays in the EU’s big league or if it retreats back into isolation alongside other populist-governed countries in Central Europe like Hungary and Slovakia.
During PiS’s eight years in power it got into fights with the EU and other allies over efforts to politicize the justice system, attacks on LGBTQ+ rights, tightening abortion rules and using state money for party aims. However, it also directed a deluge of money toward poorer voters and gave often-ignored people from smaller towns and villages a sense that their more conservative values were important.
Is the president important?
Poland’s president is a largely ceremonial job — the incumbent gets to live in a fancy palace, signs off on people becoming professors, generals and ambassadors, and is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, although it’s the government that sets foreign and military policy, not the president. He can initiate legislation.
But he does have real power — albeit of a negative kind. A president can veto bills that can only be overridden with a three-fifths majority in parliament. That’s a level no party has in Poland’s deeply divided political landscape. The president can also send legislation to be analyzed by the Constitutional Tribunal, a top court, which is largely equivalent to a veto.
Tusk spelled out the perks of the job in 2010: “honors, chandeliers, a palace and a veto.”
PiS-backed President Duda has blocked much of Tusk’s legislative agenda, leading to growing frustration among his voters and one of the reasons that the government is seeing a steady fall in public support.
