Rafal Trzaskowski, the Warsaw mayor, appeared to have won the first round of the election. Prime Minister Donald Tusk is hoping his eventual victory will help push through a liberal agenda.

IT WAS NO surprise that Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw, finished ahead of Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the main hard-right opposition party, in the first round of the country’s presidential elections on May 18th.

Voters in Poland will head to a run-off election on June 1 to choose their next president, early exit polls showed on Sunday. Initial forecasts put 53-year-old Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, representing Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Coalition,