Warsaw, Poland — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk expressed his delight on Monday after a host of candidates supported by his party won the mayoral election over the weekend.
Candidates from his centrist pro-European Union Civic Coalition, or those running with the party’s backing, won in a number of cities in the second round of local elections held on Sunday, including Krakow, Poznan, Wroclaw and Rzeszow.
“It’s very difficult to say clearly who won and who lost,” Tusk said Monday. “But if we compare these results, especially in the most attractive places, in these attractive battlefields… then I really have reason to be satisfied.”
“Law and justice have simply disappeared in many places,” Tusk added at a news conference, referring to the main opposition party.
The results put the Civic Coalition in a favorable position ahead of the European Parliament elections on June 9.
Mayors were elected in a total of 748 cities and towns where no candidate received at least 50% of the vote during the first round on April 7.
Candidates from Tusk’s party also won back cities where they had not held power for many years, including Zielona Gora, Legnica and Torun.
The local and regional elections were seen as a test for Tusk’s pro-European Union government four months after it took power at national level. Sunday’s second round strengthened the Tusk government’s influence in cities, which should facilitate cooperation on development projects and the allocation of EU funds.
Tusk’s allies also won in some places in the first round two weeks ago, including in Warsaw, where incumbent Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski won an easy victory.
In the first round, the right-wing Law and Justice won the regional assemblies of the country’s 16 provinces, where it obtained 34.3% of the votes, while the Tusk Civic Coalition obtained 30.6%. Law and Justice governed at the national level between 2015 and 2023.
Tusk’s socially liberal Civic Coalition traditionally has strong support in the cities, while Law and Justice has a stronger base in conservative rural areas, particularly in eastern Poland.
The Civic Coalition is the largest group in a three-party coalition that governs the EU nation of 38 million people. The coalition is pro-European Union, but otherwise spans a broad ideological spectrum with left-wing politicians in the Left Party and conservatives in the Third Way.