On 30 July 2026, signature collection officially begins in Warsaw for a referendum on recalling Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and the Warsaw City Council. The initiative is led by the Capital City Referendum Operation (SOR).
What is it about?
The organizers, who describe themselves as a grassroots, non-partisan residents’ movement, want to trigger a recall referendum. According to them, Warsaw has for years struggled with:
- party appointments to posts instead of competence-based ones,
- an overgrown administration (over 9,000 office jobs, costing about PLN 2 billion a year),
- investment problems and delays in key projects,
- weak oversight of city-owned companies and institutions,
- a lack of a long-term vision for the city’s development.
As examples, they point to, among others, the Southern Hospital affair and other irregularities which, according to the organizers, the mayor was aware of and did not respond to adequately.
Numbers and timeline
For a referendum to take place at all, about 132,000 valid signatures from Warsaw residents (10% of eligible voters) must be collected. The collection period is 60 days, ending on 27 September 2026.
Then:
- 30 days to verify signatures,
- a possible announcement of the referendum (October 2026),
- 50 days of campaigning,
- planned voting date: 13 December 2026.
Triggering the referendum does not yet mean the authorities will be recalled. For the result to be binding, turnout must reach about 450,000–467,000 people (three-fifths of the turnout in the last local elections). This is a very high threshold.
Who are the organizers?
The main face of the initiative is Maciej Wilk, president of the Polish Development Foundation, previously known for the „Yes to CPK” movement. SOR stresses that the project does not belong to any political party, although the opposition (Law and Justice (PiS), Confederation) is following the campaign with interest. No major party has officially endorsed it at the outset.
Is it realistic?
The experience of Kraków (where a mayor was successfully recalled) shows that collecting signatures is possible, but the challenge in Warsaw is far greater, both because of the city’s scale and the very high turnout threshold. Organizers must expect that some signatures will be rejected during verification, so in practice they need a clear margin.
Signature collection is starting now. Whether Warsaw residents get the chance to vote on recalling the current city authorities in December 2026 depends on how well residents and volunteers mobilize.
