Come along on Super Sunday!
It’s Super Sunday this week everyone, so join us on Sunday night as we will bring you the latest from Poland, Portugal and Romania after the three countries head to the polls to choose their leaders.
The polling stations in Romania close first at 7pm BST (8pm CEST, 9pm EEST), followed by Poland and Portugal an hour later.
I will bring you all the key updates through the evening, including exit polls, reactions, and our snap analysis of what it means for Europe from myself in Warsaw and my colleagues across the Guardian network of correspondents, including Sam Jones and Jon Henley who led our coverage on Portugal and Romania, and Jennifer Rankin in Brussels.
But for now, that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa in Warsaw, for today. Look out for more our stories from Poland over the weekend, though!
Questions over alleged foreign interference, cyber-attacks and shadowy ads dominate final day of Polish campaign
The closing days of Poland’s presidential campaign were thrown into disarray by reports of Russian-inspired cyber-attacks and mounting confusion over a shadowy online operation that reportedly targeted two right-wing rivals of centrist frontrunner and Warsaw mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski.
The controversy erupted earlier this week following a report from Poland’s national cybersecurity body, NASK, which warned of “new information operations aimed at destabilising the electoral process” via social media.
In a statement, the institute said it had identified patterns of behaviour and social media accounts that were “consistent with the Russian Federation’s propaganda,” prompting fears of attempted foreign interference.
But separately, NASK also said it responded to more than 130 political ads on Facebook that were paid for by a foreign entity, not officially affiliated with any candidate, and benefited from a higher spend over the last seven days than that of any of the parties involved in the election, exceeding 420,000 złoty (around £83,000).
In its statement, NASK warned the effort could be a “provocation” intended to discredit the candidate it appeared to support.
However, a follow-up investigation by Polish news outlet Wirtualna Polska cast doubt on suggestions of foreign interference. Their reporting claimed the operation may have actually been supported by domestic campaigners, including a group of activists previously linked to the ruling party, which backs Trzaskowski, although questions over their funding remained open.
The publication also pointed out some inconsistencies in the official explanations, with Facebook owner Meta denying that it blocked the adverts on NASK’s request, as the authority had claimed.
Trzaskowski’s team denies any involvement in or knowledge of the campaign, but the two allegedly affected rivals – conservative Nawrocki and libertarian far-right Mentzen – sought to place the blame on the frontrunner in the final hours of the campaign.
The revelations have triggered calls for a deeper inquiry into what happened, with some worries that the incident could even open a way for the losing candidates to try to legally challenge the result of the vote.
Opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński of the Law and Justice party said it was “very, very important” to probe the issue further, and that it was “possible” that it could trigger a constitutional crisis, although he said his party did not want that to happen.
Adding to the chaos, the ruling Civic Coalition party revealed later on Friday that it was hit by a separate cyber-attack affecting its website. NASK said it was responding to the incident, confirming that the attack was attributed to a pro-Russian hactivist group, NoName057.
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk also referred to the alleged attack, blaming “a group of Russian hackers” and adding that they also took aim at the websites of two minor coalition parters.
He said the attack was “on-going,” with relevant authorities responding.
