Four U.S. soldiers were injured in a major North Atlantic Treaty Organization exercise in Norway in an accident involving four vehicles Tuesday, the U.S. military said.

One soldier was released shortly after being hospitalized, and the three others are under observation in stable condition, the U.S. Joint Information Center said in a statement.

The soldiers were in trucks delivering cargo to Kongens Gruve, Norway, in support of Trident Juncture 18, the biggest NATO exercise in recent years, two days ahead of the start date.

Trident Juncture 18 will involve around 50,000 personnel from NATO Allies and partner countries, about 250 aircraft, 65 vessels and up to 10,000 vehicles. It will take place from Oct. 25 to Nov. 7 in central and eastern Norway, the surrounding areas of the North Atlantic and the Baltic Sea, including Iceland and the airspace of Finland and Sweden.

“The accident occurred when three vehicles collided and a fourth vehicle slid off the pavement and overturned while trying to avoid the three vehicles that had collided,” the information center said.

The vehicles and personnel in the accident were assigned to the U.S. Army’s 51st Composite Truck Company stationed in Baumholder, Germany.

The U.S. military is working with Norwegian authorities to investigate the accident.
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France’s Presidential Press Association has called on President Emmanuel Macron to reconsider his decision to close the press room inside the presidential palace, an action that comes as the French leader faces declining popularity.

 

In a statement Tuesday, the association that represents French and foreign media accredited with the presidency said the press room’s closure would be “a lockdown of the Elysee Palace and a decision prejudicial to journalists’ freedom to inform and to work.”

 

Macron’s office announced plans earlier this year to move journalists to a new site outside the palace with less access to presidential activity. He also recently revamped his communication strategy and team.

 

Polls last month indicated Macron’s popularity reached a record low since his election in May 2017 amid growing criticism over his policies.

 

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the killing of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a premeditated act, and that all those responsible, including whoever ordered the operation, should be punished.

In an address to his country’s parliament, Erdogan gave details about what happened starting the day before Khashoggi visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. He said multiple teams flew to Istanbul to meet Khashoggi at the diplomatic outpost and removed the hard drive from the site’s surveillance system.

Erdogan said Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, waited outside for hours before contacting Turkish authorities to say Khashoggi was being held against his will and was in danger.

From there, the investigation was slow, with Erdogan citing the diplomatic protections in place at the consulate. But he said Turkish police were certain Khashoggi had not left the building on his own, as Saudi Arabia first claimed.

The Turkish leader stressed the need for his police and intelligence services to conduct a thorough probe, both to avoid falsely accusing anyone and to fulfill a responsibility to the international community.

Saudi Arabia admitted last week that Khashoggi did in fact die inside the consulate, initially saying that happened after a fight, then later changing to say he died in a chokehold to prevent him from leaving the building to call for help.

Erdogan said Tuesday that Saudi Arabia took an important step by admitting the killing took place, but that he expects the country’s leaders to hold all those involved responsible, no matter their rank. He said blame cannot only be put on some intelligence agents, and he suggested any trials take place in Istanbul because that is where Khashoggi died.

Erdogan finished his speech with a series of outstanding questions about the case, including where Khashoggi’s body is located, who instructed the Saudi team to go to Istanbul, and why Saudi Arabia gave shifting answers about what happened.

The various explanations have been met with skepticism from the international community and allegations Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the country’s de facto ruler — ordered Khashoggi be killed.

New surveillance video released Monday from Istanbul appears to show a Saudi agent wearing Khashoggi’s clothing and leaving Riyadh’s consulate on October 2 in an apparent attempt to cover up his killing by showing he had left the diplomatic outpost alive.

The video was taken by Turkish law enforcement and shown Monday on CNN.

The 59-year-old Khashoggi had been living in the United States in self-imposed exile while he wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi crown prince and Riyadh’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen.

Ahead of Erdogan’s speech, U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he was “not satisfied” with what he has heard, but that he expected to find out a lot more in the next few days.

“I have a great group people in Turkey right now and a great group of people in Saudi Arabia. We will know very soon,” Trump said.

Trump has said there would be consequences if Saudi Arabia was found to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death, but also made it clear he has no intention of doing anything that would affect lucrative arms deals.

“I don’t want to lose all of that investment that’s being made in our country,” he said Monday.

U.S. media reports said CIA Director Gina Haspel left the United States on Monday to go to Turkey to meet with officials there who are investigating Khashoggi’s death. The Trump administration did not publicly say anything about her trip.

In another development Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh. The Saudi foreign ministry posted a photograph of the meeting on its Twitter account. Mnuchin canceled his plans to attend a three-day investment conference hosted by Saudi Arabia beginning on Tuesday, but said he would meet the crown prince to discuss counterterrorism efforts.

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to go before his parliament Tuesday and reveal what he said would be the “naked truth” about the death of U.S.-based Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Ankara.

Since he went missing after entering the consulate on October 2, Turkish officials have accused Saudi Arabia of sending a team to kill Khashoggi.

The Saudis at first said Khashoggi had left the consulate and that they did not know his whereabouts. Later, they said he died in a fistfight after an argument inside the consulate. Most recently, the Saudis said Khashoggi died in a chokehold to prevent him from leaving the consulate to call for help. 

WATCH: Erdogan to speak on Khashoggi investigation

​The various explanations have been met with skepticism from the international community and allegations Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — the country’s de facto ruler — ordered Khashoggi be killed.

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he is “not satisfied” with what he has heard, but that he expects to find out a lot more in the next few days.

“I have a great group people in Turkey right now and a great group of people in Saudi Arabia. We will know very soon,” Trump said.

Trump has said there would be consequences if Saudi Arabia was found to be responsible for Khashoggi’s death, but also made it clear he has no intention of doing anything that would affect lucrative arms deals.

“I don’t want to lose all of that investment that’s being made in our country,” he said Monday.

U.S. media reports said CIA Director Gina Haspel left the United States on Monday to go to Turkey to meet with officials there who are investigating Khashoggi’s death. The Trump administration did not publicly say anything about her trip.

In another development Monday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin met the Saudi crown prince in Riyadh. The Saudi Foreign Ministry posted a photograph of the meeting on its Twitter account. Mnuchin canceled his plans to attend a three-day investment conference hosted by Saudi Arabia beginning on Tuesday, but said he would meet the crown prince to discuss counterterrorism efforts. 

New surveillance video released Monday from Istanbul appears to show a Saudi agent wearing Khashoggi’s clothing and leaving Riyadh’s consulate on October 2 in an apparent attempt to cover up his killing by showing he had left the diplomatic outpost alive.

The video was taken by Turkish law enforcement and shown Monday on CNN. 

The 59-year-old Khashoggi had been living in the United States in self-imposed exile while he wrote columns for The Washington Post that were critical of the Saudi crown prince and Riyadh’s involvement in the conflict in Yemen.

It is not known what happened to his remains, although Turkish officials say he was tortured, decapitated and then dismembered. One Saudi official told ABC News that Khashoggi’s body was given to a “local cooperator” in Istanbul for disposal, but Saudi officials have said they do not know what happened to his remains.

In Washington, White House adviser Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, told CNN the United States is still in a “fact-finding” phase in trying to determine exactly what happened to Khashoggi. 

“We’re getting facts in from multiple places,” Kushner said. He said that Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will then decide how to respond to Saudi Arabia, a long-time American ally.
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U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton met Monday with top Russian officials about President Donald Trump’s announced intention to pull out of a key Cold War arms deal with Moscow.

Bolton discussed the fate of the three-decade-old treaty in Moscow with Russian Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev ahead of a meeting with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Bolton is set to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the U.S. decision “will make the world more dangerous.” He rebuffed the U.S. claim that Russia had violated terms of the agreement that bans the U.S. and Russia from building, testing, and stockpiling ground-launched nuclear missiles with a range from 500 to 5,000 kilometers.

“It is the United States that is eroding the foundations and main elements of this pact” with its missile defense systems and use of drones,” Peskov said.

The Kremlin spokesman said that if the United States goes on to develop new missiles, then Russia would be forced to respond in kind. He said Russian officials want to get more information about the U.S. plans regarding the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in their talks with Bolton.

Trump has accused Russia of building and testing missiles that violate the 1987 treaty.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev signed the deal with the late U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, at the White House in 1987.

“Do they really not understand in Washington what this could lead to?” Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted Gorbachev as saying. “Washington’s desire to turn back politics cannot be supported. Not only Russia, but all those who cherish the world, especially a world without nuclear weapons, must declare this.”

Without specifying how Russia violated the treaty, Trump Saturday appeared to say Moscow will not get away with it.

“Russia has violated the agreement. They have been violating it for many years. And we’re not going to let them violate a nuclear agreement and go out and do weapons and we are not allowed to,” he said.

U.S. officials going back to the Obama administration have accused Russia of deliberately deploying a land-based cruise missile to pose a threat to NATO.

Russia has denied violating the INF agreement and says U.S. missile defense systems are a violation.

Defense advocates in Washington say the INF treaty keeps the U.S. from developing a new generation of weapons in a world that faces new global security challenges.

Trump said, “We’ll have to develop those weapons, unless Russia comes to us and China comes to us and they all come to us and say let’s really get smart and let’s none of us develop those weapons, but if Russia’s doing it and if China’s doing it, and we’re adhering to the agreement, that’s unacceptable.”

China is not part of the INF agreement.

Beatrice Fihn, the executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons — the coalition that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize — said, “By declaring he will leave the INF Treaty, President Trump has shown himself to be a demolition man who has no ability to build real security. Instead, by blowing up nuclear treaties, he is taking the U.S. down a trillion-dollar road to a new nuclear arms race.”

Dmitry Oreshkin, an independent Russian political analyst, told the Associated Press, “We are slowly slipping back to the situation of Cold War, as it was at the end of the Soviet Union, with quite similar consequences, but now it could be worse because Putin belongs to a generation that had no war under its belt. These people aren’t as much fearful of a war as people of [former Soviet leader Leonid] Brezhnev’s epoch. They think if they threaten the West properly, it gets scared.”
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Turkish investigators are stepping up pressure on Riyadh over the killing of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan prepares to reveal key details about the case.

On Monday, CNN showed footage, leaked by Turkish investigators, of a man purported to be a double of Khashoggi wearing the journalist’s clothes leaving from a backdoor in the Saudi Istanbul consulate a few hours after Khashoggi entered the building on October 2.

Sources close to the investigation claim the double was part of a 15 member Saudi hit team that arrived and left the same day as Khashoggi’s killing.

Initially, Riyadh insisted Khashoggi left the consulate. On Friday that story changed with the Saudi government admitting he was accidentally killed in the consulate following a fight. Sunday, Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir said Khashoggi was murdered.

“By drip-feeding, the gory press details of Khashoggi’s murder, Turkey managed to keep interest alive and prevented a deal between Trump’s team and Mohammed bin Salman to hush the affair with little damage,” said analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners.

A Western diplomat speaking anonymously suggested Turkey’s Intelligence chief Hakan Fidan is orchestrating the leaks to the media, thereby dictating the narrative and direction of the unfolding crisis to Turkey’s advantage.

“President Erdogan will make a profit again, making points both nationally and internationally,” said international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankara’s Middle East Technical University.

Milking the crisis

Observers say Erdogan has been uncharacteristically restrained during the crisis, making few comments and not directly attacking Riyadh. That stance is set to change Tuesday, with the Turkish president promising to reveal what he calls the “naked truth” of the investigation.

“He is a political animal; he knows when to act instinctively,” Bagci said, “so he probably senses this is the right time to act.”

Ankara is starting to face growing international pressure to reveal its findings, especially numerous reports by anonymous sources of secret recordings of the last minutes of Khashoggi’s life.

Turkey’s Yeni Safak newspaper, which has close ties to the government, reported the recording of the torture, killing and dismembering of the body. Until now Erdogan has not commented on the existence of the recordings. But last week U.S. President Donald Trump called for the tapes.

Analysts suggest what Erdogan says Tuesday is likely to be dictated by the outcome of ongoing diplomatic talks.

“I don’t expect he [Erdogan] will break up his relations with Saudi Arabia. He will at the end have the same policy as Donald Trump,” Bagci said.

“Of course Saudi Arabia will have to pay” he added, “but I don’t know what. But Erdogan will use this situation for economic and political advantages for Turkey. They [Saudi Arabia Turkey] probably haven’t still agreed; they are still talking. I don’t know how the Saudi government can satisfy Turkish expectations — the president’s expectations.”

Turkey’s economy is facing recession after its currency collapsed this year.

Analysts warn the outcome of the talks could have far-reaching consequences.

“Riyadh will owe Turkey a favor, which shall be cashed in, in terms of investments, loans or probably a more pro-Turkey stance in Syria,” analyst Yesilada said.

“If Ankara wishes to shame Riyadh by releasing the evidence it claims to have, namely the grisly details of the journalist’s murder in the hands of a Saudi hit squad in the presence of the charge d’affaires to Istanbul, this affair could still spin out of control,” he said.

In a possible move to control the volatile diplomatic situation, Trump telephoned Erdogan on Monday.

“Erdogan and Trump agreed the Khashoggi case needs to be cleared up with all aspects.” wrote Turkey’s State Anadolu news agency.

Resetting US ties

“What we do not know yet is how Trump is planning to thank Erdogan for not escalating the Khashoggi crisis further,” wrote columnist Cansu Camlibel of Hurriyet Daily News.

“Whether or not Ankara will be granted generous waivers from the upcoming U.S. sanctions on Iran, which aims to cut oil and gas imports from Tehran, is definitely a crucial part of the negotiations.”

Washington is set to impose tough financial and economic sanctions on November 4 over Tehran’s nuclear energy program. Turkey relies heavily on oil and gas from its neighbor and is lobbying for dispensation from the sanctions, which previous Washington administrations granted when targeting Iran.

U.S. Turkish relations are strained for several reasons, which resulted in Washington hitting Ankara with economic sanctions in August, triggering a collapse in the currency. However, this month’s release of American pastor Andrew Brunson by a Turkish court, a key Trump demand, has improved relations.

Analysts suggest Erdogan’s goal of resetting U.S .relations could eventually facilitate a diplomatic way out for Riyadh.

“Turkey is trying to improve relations with America,” said Bagci, “Turkey has had enough of economic and diplomatic crisis with America.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump has pledged to pull out of a key Cold War arms deal with Russia, accusing Moscow of violating it.Here is some key information about the treaty.

What is the INF?

The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, which was signed in December 1987 by then U.S. President Ronald Reagan and then Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, committed the two sides to eliminate all their nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500 kilometers, along with missile launchers.

By the mid-1970s, the Soviet Union had deployed newly-developed SS-20 intermediate-range missiles aimed at Europe. The United States and its NATO allies responded with a “dual-track” policy of deploying intermediate-range, nuclear-armed U.S. ground-launched cruise and Pershing II missiles, while at the same time seeking an arms control agreement with the Soviet side. Negotiations began to bear fruit once Gorbachev became Soviet leader in March 1985.

The INF Treaty, which entered into force on June 1, 1988, originally applied only to U.S. and Soviet missiles. However, in 1991, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, the treaty was extended to cover former Soviet states, including Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Other European countries, including Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Czech, Slovakia and Bulgaria, eventually also eliminated their stocks of intermediate-range missiles.

Why do some US and Russian officials oppose the treaty?

Russian officials have complained the INF Treaty was unfairly preventing it from having weapons that neighbors like China possess, and raised the possibility Russia could withdraw from the agreement.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials have accused Russia of developing and deploying a new ground-launched cruise missiles that violate the treaty.

Similarly, John Bolton, who is now President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, co-authored a Wall Street Journal op-ed published in August 2011 that cited China’s “rapidly increasing” cruise and ballistic missile arsenals, as well as the potential missile threat from Iran and North Korea, as evidence the INF Treaty had “outlived its usefulness in its current form.”

“Despite the Kremlin’s growing propensity for international troublemaking, both Moscow and Washington have a common interest in not having their hands tied by a treaty that binds them alone.” the op-ed stated.

Why do proponents say the treaty is worth keeping?

IMF Treaty supporters argue, among other things, that withdrawing from it strategically benefits Russia, since its geography is better suited for using such intermediate range missiles. They say there is no chance the U.S. will be able to redeploy intermediate-range missiles in Europe, nor in South Korea and Japan, where they would be most effective against American adversaries like North Korea.

They say withdrawing from the treaty essentially carries little to no strategic U.S. benefit, while giving Moscow a propaganda victory.
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The killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul is unlikely to halt Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power, but could cause irreparable harm to relations with Western governments and businesses, potentially endangering his ambitious reform plans.

International outrage over Khashoggi’s Oct. 2 slaying at the hands of Saudi officials, under still-disputed circumstances, has marked the greatest crisis in the 33-year-old’s rapid rise, already tarnished by a catastrophic war in Yemen and a sweeping roundup of Saudi businessmen and activists.

The prince had hoped to galvanize world support for his efforts to revamp the country’s oil-dependent economy, but now the monarchy faces possible sanctions over the killing. Saudi Arabia has threatened to retaliate against any punitive action, but analysts say that wielding its main weapon — oil production — could backfire, putting the prince’s economic goals even further out of reach.

“The issue now is how Western governments coordinate a response and to what extent they wish to escalate this in a coordinated fashion,” said Michael Stephens, a senior research fellow who focuses on the Mideast at London’s Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies.

“Would financial sanctions be considered sufficient as to have sent a message to Saudi Arabia that this will never happen again?” Stephens added. “Some may feel this is inadequate, while others, like the Americans, may feel this is going too far.”

Senior aides close to the prince have been fired over Khashoggi’s killing, and 18 suspects have been arrested. But the prince himself, protected by his 82-year-old father, King Salman, has been tapped to lead a panel to reform the kingdom’s intelligence services, a sign he will remain next in line to the throne.

The king has the authority to change the line of succession — as he did when he appointed his son crown prince in the first place, upending the previous royal consensus.

But any direct challenge to Prince Mohammed’s succession “may be destabilizing for the kingdom as a whole,” said Cinzia Bianco, a London-based analyst for Gulf State Analytics. “Being young and being so close to his father, there is a chance that his behavior can be constrained with the influence of his father and other actors around the world,” Bianco said.

That only holds as long as King Salman remains in power. If Prince Mohammed ascends the throne, he could be in power for decades, longer than any other royal since the country’s founding in 1932, including its first monarch, King Abdul-Aziz Al Saud.

The firing and arrests announced by the kingdom appear to be at least an acknowledgement by the royal family of how serious the crisis has become.

“While it might be too early to evaluate the reaction of the international community, these moves might be read as a serious initial signal that the Saudi leadership is course correcting,” wrote Ayham Kamel, the head of Mideast and North Africa research at the Eurasia Group.

“Despite speculation that the crisis spells the end of Mohammad bin Salman, the recent announcements prove that the king still believes that the current line of succession is suitable.”

The Saudis’ greatest concern is the United States, a crucial military ally against archrival Iran and a key source of the kind of foreign investment they will need to reform the economy. A strong American response could encourage other Western countries to follow suit, further amplifying the crisis.

President Donald Trump has thus far sent mixed signals, vowing “severe punishment” over the death of the Washington Post columnist but saying he doesn’t want to imperil American arms sales to the kingdom.

Trump chose Saudi Arabia as his first overseas trip as president, and his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has developed close ties with Prince Mohammed, apparently seeing him as an ally in advancing his yet-to-be-released peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians.

But even if the Saudis keep Trump on their side, they could face a reckoning from the U.S. Congress, where Republicans and Democrats alike have expressed outrage over the killing. Some have suggested using the 2016 Global Magnitsky Act, which makes it possible to impose entry bans and targeted sanctions on individuals for committing human rights violations or acts of significant corruption.

Saudi Arabia last week threatened “greater action” if faced with sanctions. While no official has explained what that would entail, the general manager of a Saudi-owned satellite news channel suggested it could include weaponizing the kingdom’s oil production.

Forty-five years ago, Saudi Arabia joined other OPEC nations in an oil embargo over the 1973 Mideast war in retaliation for American military support for Israel. Gas prices soared, straining the U.S. economy.

But it’s unclear whether such a move would work in today’s economy. Saudi Arabia has been trying to claw back global market share, especially as Iran faces new U.S. oil sanctions beginning in November. Slashing oil exports would drain revenues needed for Prince Mohammed’s plans to diversify the economy, while a spike in oil prices could revive the U.S. shale industry and lead other countries to boost production.

“The Saudis have been very helpful by accelerating oil production, especially as sanctions on Iran ramp up,” said Kristin Diwan, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “It would be very foolish of Saudi Arabia to forfeit the trust of the oil market earned over decades by injecting politics into their oil policy.”
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U.S. lawmakers of both political parties remain incredulous of Saudi Arabia’s explanation for the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who disappeared at the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey nearly three weeks ago. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports from Washington.
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The governing populist party, which has repeatedly clashed with European Union institutions, was the top vote winner in local elections Sunday, according to an exit poll, but it was headed to lower support than it got in Poland’s 2015 parliamentary elections.

The Ispos survey said that in lower level elections for provincial assemblies, the ruling conservative Law and Justice party received the highest backing, with 32.3 percent. In the 2015 national elections it had almost 38 percent support.

Party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said it was a “good result that bodes well for the future. It’s a good sign.” But he stressed that the exit poll result might differ from the official returns expected Tuesday or Wednesday.

In many ways it was a disappointing showing for the party, which has at times received more than 40 percent support in opinion polls.

Its drop in support comes despite generous government handouts and a booming economy and it suggests some Poles do not like the constant tensions with the EU, which has condemned an overhaul of the justice system by Law and Justice, calling it a systematic threat to the rule of law and inconsistent with democratic European values.

Opposition supporters said they hope this is a sign the tide is turning. Some commentators also suggested that this indicates the ruling party will not be able to win majority support in Poland and will have to find a way to coexist with the opposition.

A pro-EU opposition candidate won Warsaw’s mayoral race outright in the first round, according to the exit poll. Rafal Trzaskowski, a former European lawmaker and member of the Civic Platform party, garnered 51.4 percent support, which would mean he would become Warsaw mayor without having to take part in a Nov. 4 runoff.

Trzaskowski, whose party governed Poland for eight years before Law and Justice came to power in 2015, ran against the ruling party’s candidate, Deputy Justice Minister Patryk Jaki. Jaki had attracted attention by heading a special commission for reversing housing decisions by the city’s Town Hall under Civic Platform.

In Gdansk, one of the sons of democracy icon Lech Walesa, Jaroslaw Walesa, had a disappointing result, only taking third place, and leaving two others to face off in the runoff Nov. 4. Lech Walesa, the founder of the Solidarity movement that confronted the communist regime in the 1980s, voted wearing a T-shirt with the word “Konstytucja” — or constitution — a popular sign of opposition to the ruling party.

Sunday’s elections were the first nationwide test of support for Law and Justice since it gained control of the national government. Its policies have produced street protests and repeated clashes with EU leaders.

Nationwide turnout was 51.3 percent, higher than in 2014, according to the exit poll, which questioned voters as they were leaving polling stations in 1,160 locations across Poland.

The election was for offices ranging from city mayors to village councilors. Law and Justice party was hoping to strengthen its firm grip on power, which has been buoyed by handing out social benefits and questioning how much authority the EU should have over member nations.

Campaigning targeted Poland’s largest cities — such as Warsaw, Poznan, Krakow, Wroclaw and Gdansk — which are traditionally pro-EU, and where the opposition is in control of local governments.

In Warsaw, in a rare sight, voters had to stand in lines at many voting stations to get their ballots. They said voter mobilization was very high in the race between the EU-skeptic and pro-EU main political forces.

“I have never seen so many people voting, this is a good thing. The question is will this be enough for (pro-EU Civic) Platform to keep power” in Warsaw, Aneta Benedyk said as she stood in line in southern Warsaw.

Poland’s local elections kick off a string of crucial votes that include the European Parliament vote in May, the national parliament vote in the fall of 2019 and Poland’s presidential election in the spring of 2020.

 
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