Signature collection begins Thursday

On Thursday, 30 July 2026, at 9:00, volunteers wearing orange vests will fan out across all districts of Warsaw to begin collecting signatures for a referendum to recall Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and the City Council. The initiative, called Stołeczna Operacja Referendalna (Capital Referendum Operation), is led by Maciej Wilk, who announced the launch on social media.

“The documents are already prepared. From Thursday you will be able to meet our volunteers in all districts of the capital. You will recognise them by their distinctive orange vests.”

The signature drive is scheduled to last 60 days. After that, organisers plan 30 days for verification of the collected signatures. If the threshold is met, the referendum would be announced in October and could take place as early as December, according to the timeline published on the initiative's website.

Accusations against the mayor

The organisers accuse the city administration of mismanaging municipal companies and institutions. They point to two failures at the Czajka wastewater treatment plant, the prolonged and costly renovation of the Sala Kongresowa, and traffic policies they say harm residents: narrowing streets, removing parking spaces, and introducing a Clean Transport Zone.

They also criticise the growth of the city bureaucracy. The initiative states that Warsaw now maintains over 9,000 administrative posts, a 50 percent increase since 2005, costing residents 2 billion złoty annually.

“Warsaw maintains over 9,000 administrative posts — that is a 50 percent increase since 2005 and costs residents 2 billion złoty a year.”

The campaign further argues that Trzaskowski treats the mayoralty as a stepping stone to higher national office and is rarely present at city hall.

“He treats this function as a stop on the way to the highest offices in the state, someone who merely drops by at city hall.”

The push for a referendum gained momentum after a scandal at the Szpital Południowy (South Hospital). In late June, Trzaskowski announced he had accepted the resignations of two deputy mayors, Renata Kaznowska and Aldona Machnowska-Góra, who oversaw education, health, sport, and cooperation with the City Council. No official reason was given, but the matter was linked to the hospital affair.

What it takes to trigger a referendum

To force a vote, organisers must collect signatures from at least 10 percent of eligible Warsaw voters, roughly 132,000 people. Even if that threshold is met, the referendum will only be valid if turnout reaches three-fifths of the number who voted in the last local elections, about 450,000 residents.

A shadow of 2013

Warsaw has been here before. In October 2013, a referendum sought to remove then-mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. The grievances then included poor public transport organisation, ticket price hikes, chaos around waste collection, and delays in major investments such as the metro and the Northern Bridge. That vote was invalidated because turnout reached only 25.66 percent, below the required 30 percent threshold at the time.

What happens next

The signature collection is the first formal step. If organisers gather enough support, the verification process will determine whether the referendum proceeds. The timeline points to a possible vote in December, but the high turnout requirement, 450,000 voters, remains a significant hurdle, as the 2013 experience showed.