Exit polls show populist anti-immigration right likely to hold Poland presidency | Eastern NC Now

Results from both of the exit polls show the populist nationalist anti-immigration and eurosceptic right well placed to elect Poland's next president in the election held Sunday.   The candidates of the populist nationalist anti-immigration Law and Justice Party, to which the outgoing president belongs, and the pro-EU traditional conservative Civic platform each received about 30% of the vote and will meet in a runoff.  Thirteen candidates in total vied in the first round.

Finishing solidly in third place, and the only other party to achieve double digits, was the even more stridently nationalist anti-immigration populist Confederation Liberty and Independence with about 16% of the vote.  In fourth or fifth place (depending on the exit poll) with about 6% was a party even further to the populist right, Confederation of the Polish Crown.

The runoff is scheduled for June 1.  The Law and Justice backed candidate is nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki.  Nawrocki has also been endorsed by Solidarity, the anti-communist union whose strikes brought down Poland's former communist government.

Meanwhile in Portugal which also held a snap parliamentary election Sunday, two parties of the right were neck and neck for first place, with the Socialists third in the exit polls.  The battle for first place was between the currently governing Democratic Alliance, a coalition of three traditional conservative parties, and the populist nationalist anti-immigration Chega Party, a relatively new party that has grown rapidly.