Hello and welcome to the Intelligence on Economist Radio.

I'm your host, Jason Palmer. Every weekday we provide a fresh perspective on the events shaping your world.

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First up though.

On Sunday Poland will head back to the polls to vote for its next president.

The election is a runoff between the conservative incumbent and his centrist challenger.

There's a huge amount at stake. The two candidates offer very different visions for the country.

And the outcome will have consequences not just for Poland, but for Europe too.

In this election, polls will choose between Andre Duda, the law and justice-backed president, and Rafael Traskovsky, the mayor of Warsaw, his friend's centrist civil platform party.

Annabelle Chapman writes about Poland for the economist and his base in Warsaw.

And the reason there's a runoff is because in the first round on June 28, none of the candidates got over 50% of the vote.

And why do you remind us this election so important? What is it that polls are voting on here?

So this election is the latest installment of the long conflict between the ruling law and justice party in Poland and the centrist opposition, which has dominated Polish politics for more than a decade.

Since coming to power in 2015, the law and justice party has really strengthened its grip over the country.

Some of its first moves were to take over the public television and radio broadcasters, and from that also moved on to the courts.

Most recently, the Supreme Court, it's argument as that it's trying to purge these institutions of remnants of the communist era.

And this has resulted in a conflict with the European Commission, which accuses the Polish government of undermining the rule of law.

And so what effect has that had on the electorate?

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