Polish president says EU could interfere in May presidential election

WARSAW

The European Union may interfere in May’s presidential election in Poland, Polish President Andrzej Duda claimed on Thursday.

“Brussels does not like conservatives ruling in Poland,” he told Kanał Zero, an online radio channel.

The election to choose Duda’s successor, whose second and final term in office ends in August, will see rightwing Law and Justice (PiS)-backed Karol Nawrocki and Rafal Trzaskowski from the centrist Civic Platform (PO) party as the two main rivals.

When in power between 2015 and 2023, PiS often accused Brussels of withholding EU funds based on what it claimed were spurious objections.

The European Commission said on several occasions the withheld funds were due to Poland’s democratic backsliding over independence of the media and judiciary.

Duda claimed Thursday that Brussels had interfered in Romania’s recent presidential election. “I ask myself the question, and I mean that seriously because I’ve heard statements from prominent members of the European Commission saying that they interfered in the Romanian case,” Duda said. “And I don’t like that very much, because they have also interfered in Polish affairs before.”

In December, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the first round of the presidential election that had taken place the previous month and was won by Calin Georgescu, a nationalist candidate considered pro-Russia.

“Is it possible that today elections in individual countries – seemingly democratic – can only be won by those who are accepted in Brussels? I have this impression and I don’t like it very much,” Duda said.

There is a “real threat to democracy today, the example of Romania shows it very vividly,” the president said, expressing concern that in Poland “democracy will become a complete facade and it will be the case that no one else will ever be able to win the elections."