The campaign was marked by personal attacks between the two camps, which appear far apart. Tusk accuses Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of, among other things, eroding the rule of law, over which Warsaw is regularly at odds with the European Union. Conversely, Morawiecki and his party claim that Tusk is a puppet of the EU and Germany and that he is not acting in the interests of the Polish people. Tusk organized several large demonstrations against the government in recent weeks. Two weeks ago, about a million people turned out in Warsaw.
The elections are also partly about the relationship with Ukraine. Poland is one of Kyiv’s fiercest allies, but the two countries recently came to blows over the import of Ukrainian grain. Warsaw has temporarily banned this to protect its own agricultural sector. PiS usually scores very strongly in rural areas and therefore seems to want to stand up for its own voters.
Voting will also take place on Sunday in several referenda that the government has called. It concerns questions about the EU’s asylum policy with which PiS does not agree and a possible fence along the border with Belarus. According to critics, the referendums are intended to attract more conservative voters to the polls.