Bronisław Komorowski has run a lacklustre campaign, but few Poles doubt he will win a second-round runoff for presidency

A rock star, a former TV presenter and a sometime ally of Ukip who questions women’s right to vote are bringing a dash of colour to Poland’s presidential election campaign.



Moderate incumbent Bronisław Komorowski is almost certain to win in a second round runoff, but disillusionment with mainstream politics has seen some voters drift towards radical candidates.

Among them is musician and social activist Paweł Kukiz, now polling 9%, and behind him on 5% is Janusz Korwin-Mikke, whose party has lent support to Ukip’s grouping in the European parliament. Korwin-Mikke styles himself as a conservative libertarian, but has said there is no solid evidence that Hitler knew about the Holocaust and that it would be better for women if they were denied the vote.

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“There are two of us who are anti-regime candidates, me and my friend Mr Kukiz,” Korwin-Mikke, a bow-tie wearing MEP, said in his spartan office in central Warsaw, and compared himself to US libertarian Ron Paul.

“There has been no real change in Poland since 1989, it’s still socialism. If you see our meetings we have thousands of young men who want to destroy the system, because socialism is just slavery: we are slaves to the state. I want an absolutely free market without any social benefits. I am a true conservative and a true libertarian.”

The traditional ex-communist left, the Democratic Left Alliance party (SLD), has been pushed to the margins, despite having attracted international attention in the early stages of the campaign by nominating 35-year-old former soap opera actor and TV presenter Magdalena Ogórek as its candidate. A Russia Today subsidiary described her as Poland’s most beautiful presidential candidate in a widely circulated clip, while GQ magazine said she “might be our new favourite world leader”. A PhD in history did not stop one political analyst dismissing her as a “bimbo”.

Ogórek was chosen to give the ageing SLD a fresh face, but is currently polling 3%.

She has avoided giving interviews – repeated requests from the Guardian were unanswered – which sources say is partly due to a clash with the party hierarchy over her religious views as a churchgoing Roman Catholic.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Magdalena Ogórek is standing for the Democratic Left Alliance. Photograph: Janek Skarżyński/AFP/Getty Images

“Ogórek is a curious candidate, more model than politician,” said Aleksander Smolar, president of the independent Stefan Batory Foundation, which supports democracy and open government. “It’s possible we’re seeing the complete self-destruction of the left, while on the right are rising populists.”

Poland’s president has a limited role, but oversees the armed forces and can veto and propose legislation.

The presidential vote is widely seen as a curtain-raiser for a parliamentary election in October. In that poll, the ruling centre-right Civic Platform will face a strong challenge from the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) associated with Jarosław Kaczyński and his late identical twin and former president, Lech.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Presidential candidate Paweł Kukiz. Photograph: Agencja Gazeta/Reuters

Poland’s economy has been one of the fastest-growing in the EU, and will be among the top 20 in the world in growth terms this year, according to Bloomberg. The country has been increasingly assertive on the international stage, particularly during the Ukraine crisis, in which it has taken a firm stance against Russia. Former Civic Platform prime minister Donald Tusk was appointed president of the European council in December. But the two main parties – which both have their roots in the anti-communist Solidarity movement – fail to rouse much excitement.

An 29 April poll by Millward Brown for TV24 put Komorowski on 42%, down from 45% on 15 April, and below the 50% needed to win in the first round. The youthful PiS candidate, Andrzej Duda, was well behind on 27%.

“There’s general discontent and boredom among young people with the two established parties,” said Krzysztof Bobiński, a political commentator close to Civic Platform. “The Platform is performing in a staid, unexciting way, and there’s a slight whiff of scandal about them. Many people think it’s time for a change, but they’re not going for PiS, they’re going for people making a noise.”

Komorowski’s lacklustre campaign has seen his support erode, and while Duda performed more strongly than some suspected, his support has also dropped in recent weeks.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Poland’s president, Bronisław Komorowski, enjoys a meal at a farm while campaigning in Komorów near Radom, Poland. Photograph: Kacper Pempel/Reuters

We know Komorowski, he’s not bad, and he doesn’t have any competition – the others aren’t political leaders

Few on the streets of Warsaw doubt Komorowski will win. “I think there’s only one candidate: Komorowski,” said Grzegorz Kukowka, a 23-year-old student waiting for a friend on Nowy Świat, an elegant street leading to Warsaw’s rebuilt baroque old town. “We know him, he’s not bad, and he doesn’t have any competition – the others aren’t political leaders.”

Komorowski’s campaign has focused on promoting him as a safe pair of hands. His aide and former Platform MP and MEP Paweł Zalewski said Komorowski, a former defence minister, would lobby to strengthen Nato’s eastern flank in response to “the threat coming from Russia and the Kremlin”, supporting the $42bn (£28bn) upgrade of Poland’s armed forces and Nato’s Newport summit declaration, which condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine and called for a robust transatlantic response.

“He thinks as the leader of a region,” Zalewski said.

Komorowski also supports the pro-western aspirations of Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova, according to Krzysztof Lisek, a member of Komorowski’s campaign team and another former Civic Platform MP and MEP.

Komorowski’s supporters are preparing a huge last-minute door-to-door campaign in an attempt to secure victory in the first round, he added. Thousands of Poles living abroad are also eligible to participate in the ballot.