Polish president and defeated rival in first “peaceful meeting” since elections

President Andrzej Duda met with defeated presidential candidate and Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski on Thursday morning for the first time since the end of the presidential campaign. The private meeting was described as “peaceful” by Duda and “very honest” and “substantive” by Trzaskowski.

“I am glad that we met today, in our roles: me as the president of the Republic of Poland, Mr Rafał Trzaskowski as the president of the capital city Warsaw,” said Duda after the meeting, reports TVP info. “It was a peaceful meeting.”

Speaking on Facebook live right after the meeting, Trzaskowski said “it was not a courtesy meeting, it was a substantive meeting.” Trzaskowski said he had told Duda that “the elections had not been fair,” citing coverage by state broadcaster TVP, on which Duda “had a slightly different opinion”.

After polls closed on election night, Duda had extended an invitation for a meeting in the presidential palace after initial exit polls showed him leading by a slim margin, but Trzaskowski said “the most appropriate moment seems to be after the election results are announced”.

During Thursday’s meeting Duda expressed regret that Trzaskowski refused to meet on election night: “I wanted that meeting, regardless of who won the elections, to be a symbol and become a Polish tradition for the future, a tradition of presidential elections,” reports TVP Info.

The Warsaw mayor added that one of the topics of the meeting was “the condition of local governments”, and that he had put forward a bill “to increase their financial security”. Trzaskowski added that “he hopes that the president will veto bad ideas, which could weaken local authorities,” reports Gazeta.pl.

Trzaskowski explained that local government authorities have seen their finances deteriorate due to lower tax income and greater spending pledges made by the PiS government. During the one-on-one meeting, the Warsaw mayor also raised the issues of media freedom and climate change.

Duda added that one of the topics of discussion was the 76th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising on 1 August, for which commemorative events are already taking place in Warsaw today.

A defeat in a presidential race has not interrupted the rise of other prominent Polish politicians in the past, including former prime ministers Donald Tusk and Jarosław Kaczyński, fanning speculation about how the Warsaw mayor will use the political momentum of his energetic presidential run.

Speaking on Wednesday, Trzaskowski discussed the launch of a new civic movement that would cooperate with the main centrist opposition party, the Civic Coalition (KO), but added that the movement “would definitely not be a political party,” reports NaTemat.

Two weeks ago, Trzaskowski said that his movement would be called “New Solidarity” and would be based on cooperation between local authorities.

Main image credit: Kancelaria Prezydenta/Twitter

Maria Wilczek

Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.