It's happened before! How the 2025 Polish presidential election resembles the 2004 election in Ukraine

cross-posted from: https://europe.pub/post/1326670

The action began on November 22, 2004 as a reaction to the massive fraud that affected the election results (this fact was later proven in court). In the first round of the presidential election, held on October 31, 2004, the Central Election Commission recognized the victory of Viktor Yushchenko, although with a minimal margin (39.90%) over Viktor Yanukovych (39.26%).

The second round of the election was held on November 21, 2004, and at 2 am on November 22, the Central Election Commission of Ukraine announced that, according to the results of counting 30% of the ballots in the presidential election, Viktor Yanukovych had allegedly won. These data were completely at odds with the exit polls. According to the results of the second round of elections, Yanukovych received 49.46%, Yushchenko 46.61%. According to the exit poll results, Yanukovych received - 43%, Yushchenko -54%. Yushchenko's team called on Ukrainians to take to the Maidan. At the same time, armored vehicles were brought to Kyiv to protect the Central Election Commission and other administrative buildings, and Vladimir Putin was the first to congratulate Yanukovych on his election to office.

During these days, from 100 to 500 thousand protesters from all over the country gathered on Independence Square in Kyiv. Thus began the Orange Revolution, which lasted almost until the end of 2004. After a long confrontation, the Supreme Court recognized violations during the second round of elections and scheduled a re-run for December 26. In them, Viktor Yushchenko received 51.99% of the votes, Yanukovych took 44.20%. “If the Orange Revolution had not taken place, since 2005 we would have been a province of Little Russia,” Viktor Yushchenko later estimated. Video about these events you can see here: https://youtu.be/EG4De4Icsmo