Photo: Collecetd from Internat

WARSAW, May 25, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Tens of thousands of people rallied in
central Warsaw on Sunday in rival demonstrations for the two candidates in
Poland's presidential election on June 1.

Warsaw's pro-EU mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who is backed by Poland's centrist
government, led a "Great March of Patriots" to Constitution Square.

Nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki's "March for Poland" was due to end up
at Castle Square in Warsaw's Old Town.

Nawrocki's supporters sang patriotic and religious songs and held up signs
calling for an end to immigration.

"I am Polish and so I am voting for a candidate who will guarantee our future
and act as a counterbalance to the current government," said Piotr Slaby, a
financial sector worker from the city of Przemysl in southeastern Poland.

Piotr Nowak, a technician from Warsaw, 41, said: "We have a cosmopolitan
government. They want to introduce the euro and we will lose our
sovereignty."

Opinion polls are predicting a dead heat, with both candidates on 46.3
percent.

Trzaskowski, 53, won the first round of the election on May 18 by a razor-
thin margin, getting 31 percent against 30 percent for 42-year-old Nawrocki.

An overall victory for Trzaskowski in the election would be a major boost for
the government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The former European Council president has been at loggerheads with the
current nationalist president, Andrzej Duda, since coming to power in 2023.

A win for Nawrocki -- a fan of US President Donald Trump -- would probably
extend the political deadlock in the Central European country of 38 million
people.

Experts predict this could lead to fresh parliamentary elections.

A Nawrocki victory could also chip away at Poland's steadfast support for
Ukraine, as he opposes NATO membership for Ukraine and has denounced the
benefits given to the one million Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

At the Trzaskowski rally, many supporters could be seen waving European Union
and LGBTQ flags.

Irek Kurnik, a 52-year-old businessman, said a vote for Trzaskowski was "the
only way to go towards Europe" instead of Russia.

"Choosing between the two candidates is like choosing between night and day,
and we choose day," he told AFP.

Romanian president-elect Nicusor Dan, a pro-EU centrist who is due to be
sworn in on Monday in his country, also attended the Trzaskowki march.

Dan won a tense election this month against nationalist rival George Simion,
who had campaigned against the EU's "absurd policies" and wanted to cut aid
to Ukraine.

Olivia, 20, a student who declined to give her last name, said she supported
Trzaskowski "above all because he wants to protect LGBTQ people and women's
rights on the issue of abortion".

Trzaskowski, who is married with two children, has vowed to campaign for
women's rights and legalise abortion in the predominantly Catholic country,
which has a near-total ban on the procedure.