Angry young Poles hold the key to presidential palace in knife-edge election

“I am sorry, because you were all expecting more – faster, stronger,” shouts Donald Tusk, eyebrows furrowed, sleeves rolled up, to an enthusiastic crowd of tens of thousands of supporters in the heart of Warsaw.

Apologising for your record in government may not sound like the ideal campaign message, but it has become the last great hope of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition ahead of presidential elections on 1 June.

Tusk became prime minister in December 2023, ending a turbulent period of rule by the rightwing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. Over eight years, the PiS government weakened Poland’s system of checks and balances, appointing loyalists to run the state broadcaster and independent agencies, politicising the courts and using public funds for electoral gains. PiS also managed to severely strain relations with Brussels, leading the EU to freeze part of its financial support. But the country, deeply embedded in the single market, continued to attract foreign investment and push its “economic miracle”.

Tusk pledged to restore the rule of law and hold his predecessors accountable. But the presidency remained in PiS’s hands, allowing President Andrzej Duda to block the attempted reforms at every step. If the Civic Coalition’s candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski, the current Warsaw mayor, wins the second round this weekend, Tusk argues, they can finally deliver what they promised.

“I am asking you, sincerely: give us the strength to change Poland, just as we promised. [...] I haven’t forgotten a thing,” he tells the crowd.

But many of those who helped elect Tusk in 2023 are less willing to back his party this time around. On the fourth floor of a rundown building in central Warsaw, Marta Lempart, leader of the pro-abortion rights movement, the Polish Women’s Strike, does not hide her frustration towards Tusk’s government. “Nothing is happening. This is an anti-democratic government: a majority supports legalising abortion and introducing civil partnerships,” she says. “They’ve completely abandoned this agenda.”

Lempart rose to prominence in 2020 by spearheading huge protests across the country in response to a controversial ruling from the Constitutional Tribunal, a body in the grip of Law and Justice, which made abortion access one of the most restrictive in the EU.

Those protests helped to shape a new generation of political activists, such as Paula Wasiluk, who is now part of an advocacy group for young people. Abortion tops her list of concerns, but she also worries about housing, due to the lack of affordable rental flats for students and young professionals.

“Despite the promises, no social housing scheme has materialised,” she says. “Instead, the government has focused on reducing healthcare contributions for business owners.”