Poland Has A New President
Poland has elected a new president. Bronislaw Komorowski, candidate for the liberal Civic Platform party, was officially declared the victor on Monday, 5th July.
Komorowski comes from an aristocratic background, although his family was impoverished by the communist era. His kinsman, Tadeusz Komorowski (codename Bor), was the Commander-in-Chief of the wartime Home Army, the official resistance movement that fought against Nazi occupation.
The new president is himself a veteran of the fight for freedom, albeit against the Soviets. Komorowski was thrown into prison in 1980 for his role as a pro-freedom activist. He was interned again during the infamous martial law era.
Komorowski beat right wing candidate Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of late president Lech, who perished in April's air tragedy. Although the final run-off was relatively close (53.01 % against 49.99 % of Kaczynski), the new president won a decisive victory in Cracow, where he took 60.1 % of the vote against Kaczynski's 39.9%.