Twenty-six politicians will compete for every one Polish seat in the European Parliament, the National Electoral Office revealed today.

Altogether, that comes to more than 13000 candidates wanting to be elected. The vast majority of them are men, only one-fourth are woman.

One of the most high profile duels will take place in Krakow. Former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro (Law and Justice, PiS) will take on Roza Thun, the current head of the Representation of the EC in Poland, who leads the Civic Platform list of candidates.

The latter will appear on the list as Róża Maria Gräfin von Thun und Hohenstein, which is her full surname. She tried to convince the National Electoral Office to let her use a shorter form, more familiar to the constituency, but that was declared to be against electoral law.

Thirty-eight of the fifty-four incumbent European MPs from Poland are striving for re-election. This year, Polish representation in parliament will shrink to fifty.

The election to the European Parliament in Poland will take place on 7 of June. (jg/pg)