“Not a tough situation, just a beatdown”, said Anna Maria Żukowska of the New Left, a coalition partner of Donald Tusk, summarizing the political knockout suffered by Civic Platform in Kraków. The referendum proved valid and decisive, and residents voted to recall the city’s mayor. For the ruling camp, this is a major blow – all the more so because even commentators sympathetic to it are now speaking of a serious crisis on the side of Civic Platform.
The referendum on recalling the Mayor of Kraków turned out to be valid and decisive, the Municipal Referendum Commission announced. This means that the mayor’s mandate will expire after the publication of the electoral commissioner’s protocol in the Voivodeship Official Journal.
In the vote on recalling the Mayor of Kraków, 29.99% of eligible voters took part. This exceeded the legally required turnout threshold of 26.98%. The commission also reported that the majority of valid votes were cast in favor of recalling the mayor.
“The number of valid ballots cast exceeded the statutory threshold, which means that the referendum is valid. Since the majority of valid votes were in favor of recall, the result of the referendum is decisive,” the Municipal Referendum Commission announced.
The vote on recalling the Kraków City Council ended differently. Turnout there reached 29.97%, failing to meet the required validity threshold of 30.72%. In practice, this means the referendum concerning the city council is invalid, and councilors will retain their mandates.
Żukowska did not hold back. The issue became one of the main topics on Monday morning on social media. Voices were raised not only by politicians from Civic Platform (KO), including Miszalski himself, but also by journalists from pro-government media.
Katarzyna Kolenda-Zaleska of TVN24 commented on the results of Sunday’s referendum: “A tough situation for KO after Kraków.” Żukowska, deputy leader of the New Left (Nowa Lewica), responded to her post, summing up the vote in harsher terms: “Not a tough situation, just a beatdown.”