The Times - UK (2020-06-29)

the times | Monday June 29 2020 2GM 27

The World at Five

Five Star’s prodigal son is

back to save the party

In depth and online today at 5pm

thetimes.co.uk

Elijah McClain, a young black man who loved playing the violin, and died in police custody last year. Protesters confront riot

on the street. John Faulkner, a Mississippi senator, makes his views clear in a mask referring to George Floyd’s lethal ordeal

supporter who chanted ‘white power’

issue, stating that recent

police killings of African-

Americans “served as

tragic reminders of

the ongoing need for

all of us to stand

against racism and

for equality and

justice”.

“We believe that

Wilson’s racist

thinking and

policies make him

an inappropriate

namesake for a

school whose schol-

nation’s civil service after it had been in-

tegrated for decades.”

Wilson, a Democrat, was the 28th

president of the US from 1913 to 1921.

He was awarded the Nobel peace prize

in 1919 for his role in creating the

League of Nations. Yet historians also

noted that he was insensitive to

African-American sentiments and as-

pirations and escalated discriminatory

hiring practices and racial segregation

in government, leaving black people

who had supported his run for the

White House with a sense of betrayal.

As president of Princeton, before his

White House tenure, he blocked

African-American students from at-

tending and claimed that they had

never been allowed to study there.

Leading article, page 25

ars, students and alumni

must be firmly committed

to combatting the

scourge of racism in all

its forms,” the board

stated. “Identifying a

political leader as

the namesake for a

public policy school

inevitably suggests

that the honoree is

a role model for

those who study in

the school.

“We must there-

fore ask whether it is

acceptable for this uni-

versity’s school of public

affairs to bear the name of a

racist who segregated the

Polish populists are

rocked by liberal

surge at ballot box

Poland voted yesterday in the first

round of presidential elections that are

poised to deliver a sea change in its poli-

tics and a blow to populists across the

European Union.

Andrzej Duda, 48, the incumbent, is a

European political soulmate of Presi-

dent Trump, and his parliamentary ally,

the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party,

has repeatedly clashed with the EU.

President Duda was ahead in yester-

day’s vote with 42 per cent, according to

preliminary results, but far short of the

majority he had hoped for, necessitat-

ing a run-off vote in two weeks’ time.

His challenger will be Rafal Trzas-

kowski, 48, the liberal and polyglot

mayor of Warsaw, from the Civic Coali-

tion, a pro-EU and centrist grouping.

Mr Trzaskowski came second with

30 per cent of the vote.

“This result shows that over 58 per

cent [of voters] want change, and to

those citizens I say: I will be your candi-

date,” he said. “This [second-round]

election will be one between an open

Poland, and a Poland which is looking

for enemies, with a president who

incessantly tries to divide.”

Polls suggest that the run-off likely to

follow on July 12 is too close to call.

Turnout was reported at 62.9 per

cent yesterday, compared with 49 per

cent in the previous presidential vote,

the second-highest level since Lech

Walesa faced Aleksander Kwasniewski,

a reformed communist, in 1995.

“This is a decisive time. A lot will

really depend on this decision,” said Mr

Walesa as he cast his vote in Gdansk.

Mr Walesa, 76, who became Poland’s

first democratically elected president

in 1990, has been a trenchant critic of

the government.

The vote has been keenly anticipated

across Europe, particularly because

during Mr Duda’s presidency an over-

haul of Poland’s courts has prompted

legal sanctions from the EU for the

“serious breach of the rule of law”.

Mr Trzaskowski has captured a

national mood with his slogan “We’ve

had enough”. At his final campaign rally

in Warsaw on Friday he promised to

mend relations with Europe and re-

store constitutional norms.

Mr Duda’s campaign focused on

defending the nuclear family in the

mostly Catholic nation and promising

to keep raising living standards to west-

ern European levels. He opposed same-

sex marriage, and denounced the gay

rights movement as “LGBT ideology”.

Although it is largely a ceremonial

role, the presidency confers the power

to block key legislation tabled by the

government, which has also clashed

with the judiciary. As PiS lacks a three-

fifths parliamentary majority to over-

turn the presidential veto, the election

has stoked opposition hopes of weaken-

ing the party’s grip.

With relations with the EU in tatters,

Mr Duda has looked to Mr Trump, who

welcomed him as the first foreign digni-

tary to visit the White House since

America’s lockdown began.

When Mr Duda was polling well

above 50 per cent in May, PiS pushed

for earlier elections despite concerns

about free and fair voting during a coro-

navirus lockdown, but abandoned the

proposed postal vote with only four

days’ notice. The cancellation of the

May election meant that the main lib-

eral opposition was able to replace its

candidate, who was flagging badly, with

the charismatic Mr Trzaskowski, who

has transformed the campaign.

As well as exposing sharp social and

cultural divisions, the election has

uncovered simmering discontent with

the political status quo, propelling

Szymon Holownia, the newcomer

independent candidate, 44, into third

place with 13.3 per cent of the vote. Most

of Mr Holownia’s supporters have said

that they would back Mr Trzaskowski

in a run-off.

Leading article, page 25

Poland

Bruno Waterfield, Maria Wilczek

Don’t kill bear that mauled

me, pleads injured walker

A walker mauled by a brown bear in the

Italian Alps is opposing an order to kill

the animal despite still being in shock.

Christian Misseroni, 28, was attacked

last week while walking with his father

on Monte Peller near Cles.

The bear fled when Mr Misseroni’s

father, Fabio, 59, attacked it, although

both men were left with deep cuts after

what they called a miraculous escape.

Maurizio Fugatti, the provincial gov-

ernor for Trento, who has claimed that

a bear repopulation programme has got

out of hand, issued a shoot to kill order,

but Mr Misseroni said the bear should

live. “My father and I are both against

killing it because we respect the moun-

tain and the animals that live on it,” he

told Corriere della Sera.

Bears were reintroduced in 1999 and

there are now 80 to 90 in the province.

Mr Misseroni acknowledged that

somebody might be killed in future. A

solution could be castration to stop the

population growing, he argued.

Sergio Costa, the environment min-

ister, also opposes killing the bear,

which would be traced by DNA from

fur left at the scene. “We don’t know if

it was a female bear protecting its cubs,”

he said.

Italy

Tom Kington Rome

KEVIN MOHATT/REUTERS; ROGELIO V. SOLIS/AP; ARTURO HOLMES/GETTY IMAGES

Donald Tusk, a

former Polish

prime minister,

voted yesterday

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