Election results

Tusk, who had held a comfortable lead for the previous few months, saw his margin decrease daily amid PiS' determined campaign. Kaczyński managed to win the support of nationalist, Catholic voters. The backing of Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, the director of the controversial Catholic Radio Maryja, certainly won Kaczyński a significant number of votes. Around 86 percent of the League of Polish Families' voters cast a ballot for the PiS candidate.

Popular populist

But support for Kaczyński didn't only come from the right. Perhaps even more significant was the unofficial election coalition between PiS and Andrzej Lepper's Self-defense (Samoobrona). One cannot underestimate the importance of Lepper's declaration of support for Kaczyński as well as the latter's criticism of the president of the central bank, Leszek Balcerowicz, who is a hate figure among Self-defense supporters. Lepper got 15.1 percent of the votes in the first round and over 80 percent of his supporters voted for Kaczyński in the second.

East v. West

The elections divided Poland in two. The northern and western parts of the country, where PO had won in the parliamentary elections, voted for Tusk, while the center and the conservative east backed Kaczyński. Each candidate won in eight districts, but Kaczyński had the greater advantage.

Ironically, Tusk won in Warsaw, where Kaczyński is mayor. Tusk got 61 percent of the votes of those with a higher education, while 69 percent of those with only elementary education opted for Kaczyński. Some 67 percent of voters from rural areas (who constitute 40 percent of those eligible to vote) went for the Warsaw mayor, while 59 percent of voters from the large cities supported Tusk.