WARSAW — A wounded Bronisław Komorowski kept his candidacy for the Polish presidency alive after a decent performance in the first debate debate against his rival Andrzej Duda on Sunday night.
A flubbed performance by Komorowski could well have made it impossible for him to regain ground after a surprise loss in the first round of the election a week ago. Ahead of this Sunday’s runoff, Komorowski was lagging in polls and momentum.
The incumbent, a leader of the center-right Civic Platform party that has ruled Poland since 2007, had frittered away a massive lead — at one point two-thirds of Poles said they intended to reelect him — and came in a percentage point behind Duda, a 43-year-old lawyer from Krakow who was nominated by right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS). Seeing the debate as a last chance to salvage his reelection, Komorowski put his public appearances on hold to prepare for the 80-minute face-off.
In contrast to his listless performance on the campaign trail, the president was aggressive on the stage, attacking Duda and occasionally leaving the challenger looking flustered.
Komorowski had two main lines of attack: He sought to undermine the inexperienced Duda’s credibility by pointing out the cost of some of his promises, and to firmly link him to PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, who was a controversial prime minister between 2006 and 2007 and is seeking the job again in parliamentary elections this autumn. “If you want a government which sees conspiracies everywhere and wants to put people in jail, vote for Andrzej Duda,” said Komorowski, rehashing the common opposition criticism of PiS rule.
Duda said he has “pledged to do everything to lower the retirement age,” a politically fraught but fiscally sensible reform implemented by the Civic Platform government. Komorowski warned that rolling back that change would cost the equivalent of about €50 billion, reduce pensions of elderly Poles and hike taxes for younger people.
“I’m an independent person, I don’t have a chairman above me,” Komorowski said at the end of the debate, referring to Duda’s perceived patron in Kaczyński. The PiS leader chose Duda to be the candidate, and Komorowski has argued that however affable, Duda is merely a front-man.
A fifth of Poles voted for rock musician Paweł Kukiz’s insurgent campaign in the first round. Although Kukiz isn’t endorsing either of the remaining candidates, Duda invoked him in the debate and touched on issues close to Kukiz like revamping the Polish electoral system and increasing opportunities for young people to stop them from emigrating to western Europe.
For his part, Komorowski is trying to motivate the estimated two million Civic Platform voters who didn’t bother turning out to show up on Sunday. That is why he returned to the tactic of trying to motivate centrist voters by invoking the prospect of another PiS government. He has also turned to Donald Tusk, the founder of Civic Platform and the most successful Polish politician in recent decades. Tusk’s departure to Brussels last year to become the president of the European Council left the party adrift. But in recent days Tusk did pass through Poland and said he supported Komorowski, calling him “a good president,” although he admitted that Komorowski wasn’t a good campaigner.
One recent poll shows Duda with 54 percent support in the second round to 46 percent for Komorowski.
Analysts looking at the televised debate felt that Komorowski may have done enough to stop the bleeding, but he has little time to scramble back.
Bogusław Chrabota, editor of the Rzeczpospolita daily, wrote that Komorowski “evidently woke up” and the result was a slight victory for him.
The two men meet for a final debate on Thursday night.