The 2026 Kraków mayoral election was held on 27 September 2026 in Kraków to fill a vacancy left after the recall of Aleksander Miszalski of the liberal Civic Coalition (KO) on 24 May 2026. The second round is set to take place on 11 October 2026 between the independent candidate Łukasz Gibała and the Civic Coalition candidate Monika Piątkowska.
Electoral system Snap mayoral elections are held earlier if the office becomes vacant due to the death, resignation, or removal of the incumbent. In this case, they are held within 90 days of the premature end of a mayoral term. The Prime Minister of Poland is responsible for setting the date of a snap mayoral election. However, the election may also take place after the 90-day deadline due to legal protests against the election filed with a court. After an election complaint which allowed the extension of the 90-day deadline, the date of the snap election was set to 126 days following the recall—27 September. In the time between the recall and snap election, the commissar—acting president of the city president—fulfills the office's administrative roles for the period of the vacancy. The office of commissar is appointed by the Prime Minister.
The city president is elected for using the two-round system; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a run-off is held between the top two candidates. The city president-elect takes the oath of office before the City Council.
In order to be registered to contest the election, a candidate must be a Polish citizen, be at least 25 years old on the day of the first round of the election, a candidate must have collected at least 3,000 voters' signatures. However, there is no formal requirement to be a permanent resident of the city.
Background Aleksander Miszalski was elected City president of Kraków in the 2024 Kraków mayoral election. In the runoff, he narrowly defeated Łukasz Gibała, receiving 51% of the vote. However, Miszalski became increasingly unpopular in the office. Between September 2025 and February 2026, his disapproval rating rose from 28.5% to 59.7%. He was criticized for the increasing city debt, cronyism, not fulfilling election promises, introducing a "Clean Transport Zone", increased public transport ticket prices, paid parking on Sunday and his "personal style". An internal poll commissioned by the Kraków City Office showed that 57.4% considered the Clean Transport Zone "too restrictive". In March 2026, the citizens of Kraków started an initiative to recall the city president and city council. By the signature collection deadline in March, the initiative received 134 thousand signatures, significantly more than the required 58 thousand.
Recall referendum Rather than instructing his supporters to vote against the referendum, Miszalski called for a boycott, seeking to bring it under the required turnout threshold of 27%. However, shortly before the election, OGB projected a turnout of 27.0–33.0%. An OGB exit poll for Polsat News conducted on election day projected an initial turnout of 33.4%, although OGB reduced the projection to 31.8% in a late poll. The ultimate turnout was 30.0%, which was sufficient to recall Miszalski, but not enough to recall the city council. Nationally, Miszalski's dismissal was largely expected and supported. The vast majority of Poles — 48.5% — also determined the referendum result to be a failure for the Civic Coalition, while 25.6% thought it was not. As a result of the success of the referendum, the Civic Coalition dissolved its party structures in Lesser Poland, including Kraków, resulting in Miszalski losing his seat as the chairman of the Voivodeship chapter of the party.
The OGB exit poll in Kraków found that the main motivation behind referendum participants voting to recall Miszalski were disagreement with introduction of the "Clean Transport Zone" (for 28.3% of respondents), the level of debt (22.0%), budget management and nepotism (14.3%), rising cost of living (10.5%), disagreement with the direction of the city (9.7%), the rise in public transport prices (8.9%), unfulfilled election promiess (2.5%), the difficult situation on the labor market (2.1%) and disappointment with the speed of changes in Kraków (1.7%). 74% of respondents voted mostly out of disagreement with the city administration, while 26% voted mostly out of disagreement with the government of Donald Tusk.
The recall referendum for Kraków's mayor and city council was held on 24 May 2026. The referendums required turnout of 3/5ths of the number of votes cast in the 2024 local elections to be valid, with the threshold being set at 159 thousand votes for the mayoral recall referendum (3/5ths of the second round votes in the 2024 mayoral election) and 180 thousand votes for the city council recall referendum (3/5ths of the votes in the election for city council). The required threshold was met for the mayoral recall referendum, but the city council recall referendum, in spite of the exit poll showing otherwise, came 4 thousand votes short of success. The option to recall won overwhelmingly in both referendums. Prime Minister Donald Tusk appointed Stanisław Kracik as the commissar (acting president) of Kraków on 26 May. Miszalski's recall was the second successful referendum in a city during the 2024–2029 term, following the 2025 Zabrze mayoral election.
Mayoral recall referendum
City council recall referendum
Candidate selection
Registered candidates Name Born Last position/job Party Endorsed by Michał Drewnicki (36)Kraków, Lesser Poland Member of the Kraków City Council (2014–present) Law and Justice Łukasz Gibała (49)Kraków, Lesser Poland Member of the Kraków City Council (2018–present) Independent Kraków for Residents Daria Gosek-Popiołek (41)Sosnowiec, Silesia Member of the Sejm (2019–present) rowspan ="2" Independent New Left Polish Socialist Party Jan Hoffman 1984Kraków, Lesser Poland Member of the District I Council – Stare Miasto (2018–present)Leader of District I Council – Stare Miasto (2023–present) Independent Michał Klimek (54)Kraków, Lesser Poland rowspan ="2" Confederation of the Polish Crown Confederation of the Polish Crown KORWiN Aleksandra Owca (34)Kraków, Lesser Poland Member of the Kraków City Council (2024–present)Co-leader of Together Party (2024–present) Together Party Monika Piątkowska (52)Zakopane, Lesser Poland Member of the Senate (2025–present) rowspan ="2" Civic Coalition Civic Coalition Polish People's Party Sławomir Pietrzyk (75)Kielce, Świętokrzyskie Member of the Kraków City Council (2002–2006; 2010–2022) rowspan ="3" Independent Social Democracy of Poland New Wave Volt Poland
Candidate registration Registration of candidates in the by-election began on 3 August 2026. After establishing a committee by notifying the electoral commissar, a committee must deliver 3,000 support signatures to register a candidate in the election. Electoral committees Committee Candidate Status Date Łukasz Wantuch Nonpartisan and Independent Łukasz Wantuch Jan Hoffman - ReferendumKRK: WE will fix Kraków Jan Hoffman ; Razem Aleksandra Owca ; Repair Poland Movement Romuald Starosielec Bartosz Bocheńczak - Confederation - Reclaim Kraków Bartosz Bocheńczak New Left Daria Gosek-Popiołek ; Association of Bezpartyjni Samorządowcy in Lesser Poland Grażyna Zofia Świat ; Marian Banaś Marian Banaś Normal Country — Łukasz Gibała - Kraków for Residents Łukasz Gibała ; Social Democracy of Poland Sławomir Pietrzyk ; Monika Piątkowska - Beyond Divisions Monika Piątkowska ; PolExit — Stanisław Kułach Stanisław Kułach Law and Justice Michał Drewnicki ; Self-Defence — Grzegorz Piątkowski - Kraków Community Grzegorz Piątkowski Zbigniew Burzyński Zbigniew Burzyński Confederation of the Polish Crown Michał Klimek ; Free and Solidary — Marta Ratuszyńska Kraków Fairytale Marta Ratuszyńska Marianna Schreiber Marianna Schreiber Kraków Thought and Mathematical History — ; Together Change District XII —
Campaign issues Prominent campaign issues regarded Kraków's city debt, the Clean Transport Zone, cronyism and the long-term plan for the city. Due to the status of the by-election, the national political competition was also relevant in the Kraków political campaign, shown in the competition between Aleksandra Owca of Razem and Daria Gosek-Popiołek of the New Left.
Campaign First round In spite of the election not being called yet, several candidates already began their campaign by July. Several ministers appeared to promote Monika Piątkowska in the campaign: Prime Minister Donald Tusk on 20 August and 24 September, Minister of National Defence Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz on 27 August, Minister of Energy Miłosz Motyka on 24 September, Minister of Sport and Tourism Jakub Rutnicki on 2 October, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski on 3 October.
On 23 September, Jan Hoffman withdrew from the election and endorsed Gibała. However, his name would remain on the ballot as the ballot papers have already been printed.
Law and Justice nominated Michał Drewnicki as its candidate. Political observers noted that Drewnicki was an inoffensive candidate, and was not connected to any scandals nor ideological conflicts within Law and Justice. While Drewnicki had an advantage in that the candidate of Confederation Liberty and Independence was disqualified, the split within his party, together with the fact that the party lost its subsidies, greatly limited his chances.
Second round Shortly after the results of the first round were announced, Piątkowska challenged Gibała to a set of debates. Gibała's campaign team announced that it was unable to reach a sufficient agreement on debates with Piątkowska due to lack of time, but both parties reached a compromise by agreeing to a single TV debate. On 30 September, Gibała stated in an interview with RMF FM that he was approached by six Civic Coalition councilors with an offer of cooperation. In response, the KO had all of its Kraków councilors deny this claim and sign statements declaring their loyalty to the party. On 1 October, Piątkowska stated that she sued Gibała for the claim. Second round candidate endorsements Candidate First round Endorsement Michał Drewnicki 17.50% Against Piątkowska Aleksandra Owca 6.91% No endorsement Daria Gosek-Popiołek 4.81% No endorsement Michał Klimek 4.11% No endorsement Sławomir Pietrzyk 0.37% Undecided Jan Hoffman Łukasz Gibała
Debates #DateTime (CEST)Hosted byHost(s)Ref117:0029:55318:30418:45520:30620:05https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9TBfjGryYQ
Participation The following is a table of participating candidates in each debate:+Participating candidatesCandidate 123456Bocheńczak 1 100%Drewnicki 6 100%Gibała 5 83%Gosek-Popiołek 5 83%Hoffman 3 100%Klimek 4 100%Owca 6 100%Piątkowska 4 67%Pietrzyk 3 75%
Timeline On 29 July, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced the election day to be 27 September 2026, 126 days after the recall of Miszalski. The official electoral calendar was published on 31 July:
Opinion polls First round