Tusk’s coalition hopes to win over frustrated voters as Poland decides next president

Rafa Trzaskowski still favourite to win as first round begins, despite KO's slow progress on promises since 2023

Poles are voting in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, in a vote seen a make or break" moment for the country's pro-European coalition government, which is still attempting to reverse damage inflicted on the rule of law by the previous populist-nationalist administration it ousted two years ago.

Rafa Trzaskowski, the staunchly pro-European centrist Warsaw mayor from the prime minister Donald Tusk's Civic Coalition (KO), is the favourite to win the election, but his lead over his conservative rival, the historian Karol Nawrocki, has narrowed over the last few weeks of the campaign.