Signature Drive to Recall Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski Officially Launches

Organizers have initiated a citizen-led campaign to collect 132,000 signatures required to hold a referendum on recalling Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, with the drive running until September 28.

Filing the Referendum Initiative

Wilk announced during a conference that on Thursday morning he submitted a notice to the town hall and the election commissioner regarding the intention to initiate a referendum on recalling Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. The signature collection campaign will run until September 28, with several hundred volunteers having signed up to gather signatures.

Our action will be available to all residents of Warsaw, across all districts. In the first days, we are launching with 15 points in 10 districts of Warsaw. We are prepared to launch 30 points in the first stage. I believe there will be more. We continue to invite volunteers to join us, said Wilk.

Signature Goals and Public Response

He stated that 132,000 signatures must be collected, although he noted that the exact number will be provided by the election commissioner. These must be valid signatures. Therefore, our goal is to collect more of them to have absolute certainty that they will be deemed valid, he explained.

He estimated that there are about half a million people in Warsaw who, among other things following the outbreak of the scandal at the South Hospital, will be inclined to sign the referendum petition. Our task is to reach these people with information and forms so that they can sign, he added.

Logistics and Voter Requirements

Volunteers of the campaign are dressed in orange vests and caps. They can be found at Bank Square, the popular panhandle area, as well as on Targowa, Wiatraczna, and Waryńskiego streets. Signatures can be submitted at points, with volunteers, or sheets can be downloaded and collected independently, for example among household members, or a form can be downloaded from the Capital Referendum Operation website, signed, and mailed or brought to the headquarters.

To call a referendum, the votes of 10 percent of the electorate pool in Warsaw are needed, which is about 132,000 voters. The validity threshold of the referendum is three-fifths of the number of voters from the last local elections. This is about 450,000 people.

Historical Context and Background of Organizers

A referendum on recalling the city mayor already took place in Warsaw in October 2013, concerning the recall of Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. The main reason was dissatisfaction of some residents and the opposition with her decision. Initiators accused her of poor public transport organization, ticket price hikes, garbage collection chaos, and delays in key investments. The referendum turned out to be invalid due to low turnout, as only 25.66 percent of eligible voters went to the polls, failing to meet the then-required 30 percent threshold.

As described by Wyborcza, Maciej Wilk is the president of the Yes for CPK association and until recently was a publicist for Kanał Zero, the media outlet that exposed the scandal at the emergency department of the South Hospital. The website sor.waw.pl was registered just two days after Patryk Słowik’s first article on the subject.

Inspiration from Krakow and Political Context

Wilk did not hide that his inspiration comes from events in Krakow, where a similar initiative ended in success, and the city mayor was recalled. Preparations for the election of new authorities are currently underway there. We are in contact with the referendum action from Krakow. We are counting on a similar course of events. Last year, Karol Nawrocki received 360,000 votes in Warsaw, and recent polls say that up to 9 percent of KO voters would like the resignation of Rafał Trzaskowski after the scandal at the South Hospital, Wilk emphasizes.