Łukasz Gibała, an independent, has won the mayoral election in Kraków, Poland’s second-biggest city, beating Monika Piątkowska, the candidate backed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

With all votes counted by just after 1 a.m. on Monday morning, Gibała had 62.1% against 37.9% for Piątkowska, who had already conceded defeat shortly after 9 p.m. on Sunday night, when exit polls showed a large margin of victory for her opponent. Turnout was 44.3%.

“Today in Poland, more and more people realise that we don’t have to live in the reality that politicians in Warsaw project upon us,” declared Gibała as it became clear he had won. “More and more people realise that we, in our own towns and cities, know better what’s good for us than they do in Warsaw.”

The victory marks a blow for Tusk – whose Civic Coalition (KO) party has its strongest support in large cities – just a year before he seeks to win another term at parliamentary elections. The prime minister had visited Kraków to campaign alongside Piątkowska.

For Gibała, a wealthy businessman who has largely funded his own political career, this was victory at the fourth attempt, having stood in every mayoral contest since 2014, obtaining a growing share of the vote each time.

He stood as an independent, promising to sort out the city’s finances, end cronyism in the appointment of municipal officials, improve public transport and reverse ticket-price increases, and hold a referendum on Kraków’s controversial clean transport zone for vehicles.

He also pledged to favour residents over developers in planning decisions and to counteract the negative effects of tourism in what is Poland’s most-visited city, including by restricting short-term-rental properties.

Gibała’s victory had been expected after he came top in the first round two weeks ago with 36.4% of the vote among the seven candidates who stood. Piątkowska trailed on 29.9%. The top two candidates then met in today’s run-off.

Piątkowska was the joint candidate of Tusk’s centrist KO party and the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL), which are both part of the national government.

She has, since last year, been a member of the Senate in Warsaw. Previously, she worked in Kraków city hall during the mayoralty of Jacek Majchrowski, who held office from 2002 to 2024.

Piątkowska received the personal backing of Tusk, who announced her candidacy in June alongside PSL leader and deputy prime minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (though critics noted that they held the event in Warsaw rather than Kraków). Tusk also visited Kraków before the first round to support his candidate.

Among her campaign promises were to seek to locate an AI “gigafactory” in Kraków, to boost the availability of housing for young people, and to implement a package of policies for women, including free mammograms, pram-friendly infrastructure, free menstrual hygiene products, and safer nighttime public transport.

Kraków’s election was held in unusual circumstances after the previous mayor, Aleksander Miszalski, also from KO, was removed from his position in May, just two years into his term. He had faced accusations of cronyism and poor financial management, as well as criticism over the introduction of the clean transport zone.

A petition to hold a recall referendum received more than the 58,355 signatures required. In the subsequent referendum, 97.3% supported removing the mayor (Miszalski had appealed to his supporters not to vote in an unsuccessful effort to keep turnout below the 27% needed for the result to be binding).

Before today’s election, both Miszalski and Majchowski had called on Cracovians to vote for Piątkowska. After his victory had become clear, Gibała declared that “11 October 2026 will be remembered as the day when, after 24 years, the inhabitants of Krakow regained their city”.

The vote had been particularly closely watched as it came just a year before the parliamentary elections. Gibała’s victory has been celebrated by figures from the right-wing opposition, though the new mayor is not politically aligned with them (and indeed previously served as an MP in Tusk’s party).

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Main image credit: Łukasz Gibała/Facebook