Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, appeared on Sunday to have eked out a narrow win in the first round of Poland’s presidential election, a vote seen as pivotal as the government seeks to unwind hard-right policies put in place by a previous administration.
Mr. Trzaskowski, a member of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform, won 30.8 percent of the votes cast, according to exit polls released by Polish state and private television stations.
But competing against 12 rival candidates, he fell far short of a majority, finishing just ahead of Karol Nowrocki, a candidate backed by the hard-right Law and Justice party, who took 29.1 percent. The two men are set to compete in a runoff on June 1.
If the exit polls are confirmed by the official vote count, Mr. Trzaskowski could face an uphill struggle in the runoff, given that two far-right candidates appear to have finished third and fourth on Sunday, together getting around 21 percent of the vote. That means that, in total, the leading right-wing candidates won more half of the vote.
In a speech to supporters on Sunday evening, Mr. Trzaskowski acknowledged that “there is much work ahead of us.”
While the Polish presidency is largely ceremonial, it has veto powers that can complicate the work of the sitting government. That means that the election on Sunday has been closely watched as an important test of Mr. Tusk’s ability to unravel the legacy of the Law and Justice party, which was ousted in an election in 2023.
Mr. Tusk is seeking to slow a Trump-empowered tide of right-wing populism in Europe, and also restore judicial independence, media pluralism, women’s rights and civil debate that liberals say was severely undermined under Law and Justice.
The eventual winner of the presidential election will replace Andrzej Duda, a conservative and an ally of Law and Justice, who has used his powers to undermine Mr. Tusk’s plans.
He has repeatedly vetoed legislation passed by Mr. Tusk’s center-right coalition in Parliament or sent it for judicial review by courts stacked with the previous government’s appointees. Mr. Tusk’s coalition does not have enough votes to override his vetoes.
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trzaskowski sought to convince voters that he spoke not only for urban elites and beneficiaries of Poland’s booming economy, but also for people in the conservative rural parts of the country. Many of those people have long been reliable voters for Law and Justice.
At a recent rally in rural borderlands near Ukraine, Mr. Trzaskowski said he was speaking to “all Poles who want to see our country strong and united.”
Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting.
Andrew Higgins is the East and Central Europe bureau chief for The Times based in Warsaw. He covers a region that stretches from the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Kosovo, Serbia and other parts of former Yugoslavia.
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