Civic Coalition picks Rafał Trzaskowski as new presidential candidate

The decision to nominate Rafał Trzaskowski to run in the election instead of Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska was announced at a press conference on Friday afternoon. The leadership of Civic Platform, the largest opposition party forming the wider Civic Coalition, has been discussing the issue since the morning. The chief of the party, Borys Budka took announced the new candidate.

"After the decision of Misses Marshall (former Sejm Marshall and candidate in the presidential election, Małgorzata Kidawa-Blonska) that she will not take part in the new presidential election, Civic Coalition, Civic Platform faced the decision to nominate a new candidate for president of the Republic of Poland. It is my pleasure to inform that unanimous recommendation of Civic Platform's national council presented to our coalition partners is the recommendation of the mayor (of Warsaw) Rafal Trzaskowski," Budka said.

"Today I am standing in front of you as a candidate for the President of the Republic of Poland, taking a huge responsibility to fight for democratic Poland, to fight for a strong country, to fight for democracy," said Rafał Trzaskowski.

Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, who had stepped down as presidential candidate, said: "Nothing has ended. We are still (taking part) in a strong campaign. We have a strong candidate and I truly believe we are going to win this election. No matter when this election will take place and what date it will be on".

The new election date still hasn't been announced by the Speaker of the Sejm, Elżbieta Witek. The vote had been initially scheduled to be held on Sunday, May 10, but was called off due to the coronavirus crisis. The ruling Law and Justice party was eager to push with the election as polls suggested a landslide victory for the incumbent president Andrzej Duda, should the vote happened on time. Nevertheless, Duda still enjoys high support among voters, but with the new opposition candidate the trends may shift.