2024-04-08 15:08 update: 2024-04-09, 14:33
Rafał Trzaskowski. Photo PAP/Marian Zubrzycki
Rafal Trzaskowski's victory in elections for the mayor of Warsaw is the first step towards him becoming the president of Poland, the minister for security services has said.
Trzaskowski who represents the Civic Platform (KO), the largest grouping in the coalition government, won a second term as the mayor of Warsaw by scooping 59.8 percent of the vote in local elections on Sunday.
Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister coordinator of Poland's security services and PO's vice-chairman, was asked by the broadcaster Radio Zet on Monday whether, having won in the Polish capital, Trzaskowski would be KO's candidate for the president of Poland.
This is "a phenomenal victory," Siemoniak replied.
"A very strong mandate in Warsaw is the first step towards the presidency of the Republic of Poland and I believe it has happened," he said.
"This is the political sense of it," Siemoniak added.
But, he said, whether Trzaskowski would run for president "is his decision and the decision of various supporting milieus."
Asked whether Donald Tusk, Polish prime minister, had presidential ambitions, Siemoniak replied that, in his opinion, the PO leader wanted to focus on his current mission.
A recent opinion poll showed that Trzaskowski is the favourite in Poland's 2025 presidential elections.
He lost narrowly to Andrzej Duda in the in the second round of the 2020 presidential elections with 48.97 percent of the vote. He won the 2018 Warsaw mayoral election in the first round. (PAP)
mr/md/jch
