Rafał Trzaskowski leads social media engagement among Polish city presidents

An analysis by the Institute for Media Monitoring (IMM) reveals that social media engagement among Polish provincial city presidents is driven primarily by scandals and institutional crises rather than official achievements. In July 2026, an analysis of 774 Facebook posts from city presidents garnered 553,900 interactions.

Rafał Trzaskowski, the Mayor of Warsaw, emerged as the leader in engagement, accounting for nearly 60% of all reactions despite representing only 6.7% of the total posts analyzed. The most significant driver of interaction was the crisis involving irregularities at the Southern Hospital in Warsaw, which led to resignations and a restructuring of the city hall.

Key posts contributing to this engagement included Trzaskowski’s announcements regarding the resignations of Vice Presidents Renata Kaznowska and Aldona Machnowska-Góra, and the appointment of their successors, Magdalena Młochowska and Izabela Marcewicz-Jendrysik. The study noted that Trzaskowski was unique in directly communicating the institutional crisis to the public, resulting in high comment-to-like ratios.