The liberal Europhile Mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, won the first round of the Polish presidential election on Sunday, May 18th, with conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki coming in a close second.

The two will face each other in a second round of voting on June 1st.

Though the presidential office is mainly a ceremonial one with limited powers, it does allow for its holder to veto bills. With Trzaskowski at the helm, the abuses of power by the liberal-centrist government would continue unabated, while Nawrocki would challenge Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s regime.

Since coming to power, the Tusk government has arrested opposition MPs and former ministers, withheld state funding from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, carried out the forceful takeover of public media and the prosecutor’s office, and has disregarded court rulings issued by judges it perceives as being pro-PiS.