Independent Łukasz Gibała won Sunday’s snap mayoral election in Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city, setting up an Oct. 11 runoff against a candidate backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition.
Gibała finished 6.5 percentage points ahead of Tusk’s preferred candidate, Senator Monika Piątkowska, winning 36.4% against Piątkowska’s 29.9% — resulting in a much narrower gap than the exit poll’s 12.2 points. No candidate took the 50% needed for outright victory.
The contest in Kraków, pop. 800,000, was seen as a test of political strength for Civic Coalition ahead of the country’s parliamentary elections a year from now. The runoff offers Tusk’s camp a chance to regain the mayoralty after Civic Coalition Mayor Aleksander Miszalski was removed in a May referendum — a result Poland’s right-wing opposition portrayed as a setback for the government.
For Gibała, Sunday’s result gives him another shot at winning an office he came within a few thousand votes of securing in 2024, when he lost to Miszalski.
Miszalski subsequently faced mounting local opposition, including over Kraków’s clean-transport zone, before being recalled. Opposition parties, including Law and Justice (PiS) and parties on the far right, presented that result as evidence of weakening support for Tusk’s government ahead of the fall 2027 general election. A similar referendum may be held in the capital Warsaw, targeting Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, also from Tusk’s party.
Earlier statements from parties opposed to Tusk’s coalition indicated some could back Gibała against Piątkowska in the second round.
Turnout Sunday was 43.5%.
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