Democracy Digest: Elections, Economy and School Violence amid COVID19

Date set for Polish presidential elections

After prolonged controversy over when and how to organize presidential elections in Poland amid the still ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, Elzbieta Witek, earlier this week announced that elections will be held on June 28. Voting will take place in polling stations, but because of the pandemic, people will also be allowed to vote by mail. Those voting by post will have to request this service in advance so that their ballots can be sent to their home addresses.

Presidential elections were originally scheduled to take place on May 10 but were delayed due to a mix of epidemiological and political factors. According to the political compromise leading to the agreement on the new date for the elections, new candidates may now enter the presidential race but will have to register in time and collect the necessary number of signatures. This is especially relevant for Rafal Trzaskowski, the Warsaw mayor who recently announced that he will be running for president on behalf of the main opposition Civic Coalition; he has only five days to collect 100,000 signatures but is expected to make it.

During a parliamentary committee meeting on June 2, Health Minister Lukasz Szumowski rejected calls for his resignation. Szumowski rose at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Poland to being the country's most trusted politicians. Now he is one of its most embattled. Over the last few weeks, media have revealed that his ministry spent 5 billion zloty (over 1 billion euros) purchasing defective masks from an acquaintance of the minister. In a separate scandal, opposition parliamentarians and the media published evidence that businesses owned by...