Presidential election: ‘coronavirus in retreat,’ claims PM

With the second round of the Polish presidential election scheduled to be held on July 12 and with two rival candidates – incumbent Andrzej Duda and Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski – facing each other off in the runoff, the country’s governing rightwing nationalist and populist Law and Justice (PiS) party has ramped up the rhetoric to make sure Duda, a loyal PiS ally, wins. In recent opinion polls, Trzaskowski has garnered huge support.

Despite that Poland recorded one of the highest numbers of new Covid-19 cases in months on June 30 and July 1, PM Mateusz Morawiecki encouraged “crowded” participation in elections, especially those above 60. He claimed that “Poles no longer need to be scared of the coronavirus because it is in retreat.” Most of the Poles over 60 years of age support PiS. On June 30, 239 infections were recorded in Poland, while the day after, the health ministry reported 382 new cases.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Łukasz Szumowski has said that the government wants to “allow people over 60 years of age, pregnant women, people with small children and the disabled, to enter polling stations without queuing,” in the second round of voting.

(WP)