Duda Wins — This Time

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WARSAW, Poland (ChurchMilitant.com) - The conservative incumbent president of Poland is advancing to a second round of elections after winning the initial contest on June 28.

Catholic president Andrzej Duda, representing the PiS Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, meaning law and justice), garnered the highest number of votes, coming in with 42.9% of the tally.

Civic Platform candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, the left-leaning mayor of Warsaw, came in second with 30.4%.

Under Polish election rules, a second round takes place if none of the candidates wins more than 50% of the vote. Duda will face Trzaskowski in the second round, expected to take place on July 12.

Odds are on Duda to retake the presidency, but the stakes are extremely high for the survival of what some call the last Catholic bastion in Europe.

Big Differences, High Stakes

The differences between Duda and Trzaskowski are pronounced.

Duda and the PiS Party platform are noted for their advocacy of pro-family values, marriage between a man and a woman and respect for national and religious heritage, all of which resonate with the Charter of the Rights of the Family created by Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture.

The family charter was created in response to the mayor of Warsaw's pro LGBT+ declaration which, according to Ordo Iuris, "violates standards of ideological impartiality of public authorities" and introduces to schoolchildren sexually permissive education advocated by World Health Organization standards.

It also threatens "the constitutional principle of children's protection against demoralization," according to the Ordo Iuris lawyers.

LGBT Provocation Intensifies

Duda publicly pledged to support the charter as a centerpiece of his campaign, for which he was vehemently attacked by LGBT activists in and out of Poland, who accused him of being "ragingly homophobic."

Church Militant has previously reported on concerted LGBT attacks on Poland. During the Gay Pride Month in 2019, sources reported that activists are coming from "every possible place on earth" and "are extremely aggressive, violent and obscene."

"Equality" [LGBT] marches were organized every weekend, going from city to city and provoking Polish Christians. Locals told Church Militant that many LGBT organizers and activists came from outside Poland, and alleged they were paid for by George Soros.

LGBT Link to Communism

They also reported that the same activists who organized the LGBT marches also organized communist events.

The LGBT/communist connection was not lost on Krakow Abp. Marek Jędraszewski, who said shortly after the gay marches hit Poland, "Once afflicted with the "red plague" of Soviet communism, Poland is now afflicted by the "rainbow" plague of LGBT ideology, which denies human dignity and aims to control the souls, hearts and minds of the Polish people.

On the other hand, Trzaskowski has become the darling of Poland's left, and — no surprise — the European Union's (EU's) darling. His platform is the EU's platform: "abortion expansion, promotion of LGBTs, gender laws, opening of borders and, in short, all the string of what makes up the official religion of postmodernity," as one source puts it.

Poles Increasingly Pro-LGBT

In so many ways, Poland's election boils down to not merely Duda against Trzaskowski — just another leftist face — but Duda against the rising LGBT tide.

The Pew Research Center conducted a recent poll that shows the tide is rising — 47% of Poles think homosexuality should be accepted.

In any event, Duda and traditional, pro-family Catholics are in for the fight of their life.

Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, who represents for many the unquestionable leader of the Polish nation in opposition to the 20th-century totalitarian, communist government, said, "If they come to destroy this nation, they will start with the Church because the Church is the strength of this nation."

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