The ballot, set to take place in May, will determine whether the governing coalition that came to power late last year is able to rule the country effectively.
The incumbent head of state, a conservative, has hampered the government of centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk and warned he will use his power of veto to block key reforms, including the liberalization of Poland’s strict abortion laws and changes aiming to depoliticize the judiciary.
Thirty-four percent of respondents backed Morawiecki in the new survey carried out by Instytut Badań Pollster and published by tabloid newspaper Super Express on Monday.
Controversial former education minister Przemysław Czarnek followed on 19%, and Mariusz Błaszczak, formerly a defense minister, was third with 12%.
PiS is expected to announce its presidential candidate towards the end of the month.
Morawiecki, a wealthy ex-banker, led a right-wing government from 2017 to 2023 and previously held several ministerial posts, including deputy prime minister (2015–2017) and finance minister (2016–2018).
Czarnek is a controversial politician whose hardline views on the LGBT community, women’s reproductive rights and capital punishment made headlines during his time in office. He has been a ferocious critic of “LGBT ideology,” which he claimed came “from the same roots as Nazism.” He labeled adherents of such progressive views as “deviants.”
Meanwhile, the centrist ruling Civic Coalition (KO) will hold primaries later this week to decide if its presidential candidate will be Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski or the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski.
The winner of the national election will replace President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who hails from Law and Justice.
Duda, who has been in office since 2015, is in his second term and under Polish law, is unable to run again.
