The result

Łukasz Gibała, founder of the Kraków dla Mieszkańców association and a businessman, won the runoff on Sunday, 11 October, with 62.12% of the vote. Senator Monika Piątkowska, backed by KO and PSL, took 37.88%, and turnout was 44.27%, up from 43.5% in the first round. Internal KO polling, reported by TVN24, had put the gap between the two candidates at about 10 percentage points before the vote. Gibała was a PO member who sat in the Sejm from the party's lists in 2007 and 2011, then left for Ruch Palikota in 2012.

Łukasz Gibała62.12%

Monika Piątkowska37.88%

Łukasz Gibała

62.12 %

Monika Piątkowska

37.88 %

Data from the article text

Path to the early election

The early vote followed a referendum on 24 May in which Aleksander Miszalski (KO) was recalled as mayor. Voters backed the recall with 171,581 votes against 3,631, and turnout of 29.99% cleared the required threshold of 26.98%. Rzeczpospolita reports that Gibała had narrowly lost to Miszalski in an earlier presidential race, a little over two years before this runoff. Gibała gained voters in that period while KO lost tens of thousands of votes, according to the same paper. Wyborcza.pl described the runoff result as the second defeat for KO in Kraków, following the May referendum.

Reactions in KO and from Miszalski

Miszalski congratulated Gibała on X and said he would hold him to his promises.

“I will, however, closely observe your work and the fulfilment of the promises made during the campaign and before it.”

Within KO, politicians spoke to wyborcza.pl about what they called a bill for earlier mistakes. One said Kraków was not on the national leadership's radar and that the party had decided to present the referendum as a local issue. Another said the result was an expected defeat. Piotr Moskała, a KO councillor and Piątkowska's campaign chief, pushed back on the question of what went wrong.

“It is not a question of what failed, but of what starting point we had and what burden we carried after the referendum.”

KO and Nowa Lewica hold a majority in the city council, so TVN24 notes that Gibała will govern with only partial powers. Former prime minister Beata Szydło wrote on X that right-wing voters had decisively contributed to Gibała's victory.

Tusk and the national read

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he respected the result despite having backed Piątkowska.

“The verdict, the decision of the voters of Kraków, is sacred to me, and there is nothing to discuss at all.”

Tusk said only KO among the parliamentary parties had passed the test by reaching the runoff with nearly 40% of the vote. He said cooperation with the city would look like it does with any other local government and that the idea of a metro in Kraków must be realised, with the government certain to help. Jarosław Kaczyński said on 12 October that the Kraków result could foreshadow a national defeat for KO. Tusk dismissed the reactions of PiS and Konfederacja, saying both had suffered a historic defeat in the city.

Gibała's agenda and the economist's doubts

Gibała told RMF FM that the city's finances would be audited, saying all the cupboards would be opened and residents shown what they contain. He backs a tourist fee of at least 20 zł, more frequent buses and trams, and a return to the earlier ticket fare. He also plans a referendum in the first half of next year on whether to limit the Clean Transport Zone to the tight centre or keep it wider. Kraków recorded more than 16.2 million tourists staying at least one night in 2025.

Economist Marek Zuber is sceptical of the fee and said it could bring in tens of millions of zloty but might not be enough to reduce the city's budget deficit.

“I would not want this to be an element that discourages tourists from coming.”

Zuber also argued that tourist spending generates tax revenue that indirectly supports city services and infrastructure.