Poland presidential elections: Expert: Hungarian-Polish relations can improve by the new president

Budapest (MTI) – By the Polish presidential election victory of Andrzej Duda, it is possible to become the Hungarian-Polish relationship more intensive. The Hungarian culture, the traditional Hungarian-Polish friendship can receive more emphasis in Poland – Miklos Mitrovits, researcher of the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Research Institute said to MTI on Tuesday.

The expert said it was a surprise that Andrzej Duda, candidate of Law and Justice Party (PiS) became first in the first round. The question was whether he could keep his position or the former President Bronislaw Komorowski could mobilize his voters and be able to convince at least a part of the voters of Pawel Kukiz, who became finished third.

Mitrovits highlighted: Duda could increase his first-round lead more than threefold: from 0.99% to 3.1%, so he won the second round too. Komorowski wasn’t able to determine the campaign, but rather he followed the opponent and responded to his topics.

The analyst thinks the first-round turnout was very low, but the second one was almost nearly like the elections 5 years ago (55.34%), which is quite good for a presidential election.

Miklos Mitrovits stressed: the new President will take the oath on August 6 and a new campaign will be launched from September, since there will be Sejm and Senate elections in the autumn. While PiS doesn’t have a majority in the Sejm, the new President can’t make much change. He thinks the elections can bring the change, if PiS will be able to form a government.

The expert also said Andrzej Duda doesn’t support the constitutional amendment needed for the introduction of the euro, doesn’t support the loosening of the strict laws of abortion and in vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage. In economic aspects, he doesn’t have a final word, and although he can make suggestions and has veto power, the latter won’t take place often, if PiS will be able to form a government. He expected to be a conservative President who will maintain the close relationship of state and church, and he will take a lead role in national issues – the expert said.