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.

Since winning power back from the hands of his populist rivals a year and a half ago, Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has faced one very stubborn roadblock to his plans: the country’s president.

There’s a long way to go yet in Poland’s presidential election — but Sunday’s first round was a good day for candidates on the right and far right and it flashed a big red warning signal for the moder