- Title: Polish President Duda wins election, new battles with EU loom
- Date: 13th July 2020
- Summary: WARSAW, POLAND (JULY 13, 2020) (REUTERS VIA SKYPE) (SOUNDBITE) (English) POLITICAL ANALYST, MICHAL BRONIATOWSKI, SAYING: "The consequences (of the election) are going to be huge in Poland. It means that Poland will remain a problem for European Union and the sad story for Poland is that it is exactly this week when European Union will discuss the future multi-year budget in Brussels plus the recovery fund after the coronavirus epidemic. There's a lot of money at stake and Poland will have no friends there so this is obviously the problem."
- Embargoed: 27th July 2020 13:40
- Keywords: Andrzej Duda Law and Justice Polish president Rafal Trzaskowski electoral committe reelection voting in Poland
- Location: WARSAW, POLAND / SPLIT, CROATIA
- City: WARSAW, POLAND / SPLIT, CROATIA
- Country: Poland
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA005CMN7Y9Z
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Polish President Andrzej Duda has won five more years in power on a socially conservative, religious platform in a closely fought election that is likely to deepen Warsaw's isolation in the European Union.
Nearly final results from Sunday's presidential election run-off showed Duda, 48, on over 51%, giving him an unassailable lead over liberal Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who won almost 49% of the votes, the National Election Commission said.
Duda's victory makes renewed confrontation with the European Commission likely as the EU executive tries to deal with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and rising nationalism across the 27-member bloc.
"The consequences are going to be huge in Poland. It means that Poland will remain a problem for the European Union ... There's a lot of money at stake and Poland will have no friends there," political analyst Michal Broniatowski told Reuters.
To many religious conservatives in the predominantly Catholic nation, Trzaskowski came to represent the threats facing traditional values when he pledged to introduce education about LGBT rights in Warsaw schools.
Official results are expected late on Monday after all the votes are counted, including the record number of ballots cast abroad. Long lines were reported in various polling stations abroad with voters in Croatian seaside town of Split waiting up to six hours to vote.
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