Zabrze Mayor Agnieszka Rupniewska dismissed. Residents voted for changes

In Sunday's referendum, Zabrze residents decided to recall the current mayor, Agnieszka Rupniewska. This means that early elections will be necessary. The City Referendum Commission also announced that due to the low turnout, the vote on the recall of the city council is not binding.

Voting began at 7 a.m. and lasted until 9 p.m. Referendum participants received two cards - one with a question about the recall before the end of Rupniewska's term, the other - the city council.

116.9 thousand people were eligible to vote. 27,161 voters were for Rupniewska's dismissal , 2,046 - against.

SEE: She didn't want to answer questions. A wave of criticism after the conference of the president of Zabrze

In order for the referendum on the recall of the city council to be valid, approximately 29.6 thousand votes were needed. Meanwhile, according to the aggregated data from all district commissions, 29,106 valid votes were cast on Sunday, of which 26,551 voters voted yes and 2,555 no. In this case, the turnout threshold of 3/5 of voters was not reached .

The referendum initiators accused Rupniewska of, among other things, group layoffs in local government units, increases in local fees, resignation from organizing cyclical cultural events and the prolonged process of privatization of Górnik Zabrze. Agnieszka Rupniewska defended herself against the accusations, pointing out, among other things, that she took over the city in a very bad financial situation and had to save it from bankruptcy.

Rupniewska won the local elections in Zabrze in 2024 as a candidate of the Civic Coalition Electoral Committee . Although she ran with the support of the Civic Coalition, she does not belong to any political party. In the second round, she received 57.85 percent of the votes. She defeated her long-time predecessor Małgorzata Mańka-Szulik , who had led the city since 2006.

Before winning the presidential election, Rupniewska spent one term on the Zabrze City Council . In 2018, she also faced Mańka-Szulik in the second round of local elections, but lost then - she received 48.41 percent of the votes. She graduated from the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia . Before taking office, she managed a private company in the industrial sector.

In 2024, the Civic Coalition won the most seats in the city council - 11. Five went to the representatives of Lepsze Zabrze Kamil Żbikowski , and four each to Law and Justice and the Mańka-Szulik committee. One representative was introduced to the council by the Zabrze Social Initiative .

SEE: The last pre-election debate on Monday, May 12

Earlier, two referenda were held in the Silesian province, which ended with the dismissal of local government authorities. In 2009, residents dismissed the mayor of Częstochowa , Tadeusz Wrona, and in 2012, the mayor of Bytom, Piotr Koj, together with the city council.

In 2009, there was an unsuccessful attempt to recall the mayor of Gliwice Zygmunt Frankiewicz and the city council, in 2012 the mayor of Ruda Śląska Grażyna Dziedzic and the city council, and in 2017 the mayor of Bytom Damian Bartyla . In all three cases, the turnout during the referendum turned out to be too low.