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| - Since the fall of communism in 1989, Poland has been on a tortuous path after the Second World War and half a century of Soviet rule left the country in ruins. Now, in another landmark moment, President Andrzej Duda is on track to win re-election in a narrow victory for the populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party. With nearly all ballots counted, Duda was ahead with 51 percent of the vote compared to 49 percent for his europhile rival Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw. Here are some key dates in Poland's recent history: In 1978, Cardinal Karol Wojtyla became the first Polish pope -- a seminal moment in world history that would eventually weaken communist rule. "Do not be afraid... Open the frontiers of states, open the economic systems and the political systems," the pope said in his inaugural address. His first trip to Poland as pope in 1979 inspired millions of Poles. In 1980, Solidarnosc (Solidarity) was recognised as the first independent trade union in the communist bloc following a series of strikes. The government, controlled by General Wojciech Jaruzelski, responded by declaring martial law in 1981 and the head of Solidarity, Lech Walesa, was arrested. Martial law was abolished in 1982 and Walesa received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. Taking advantage of upheaval in the Soviet Union, a widespread strike movement led to a round table in 1989 between the communist government and the opposition united around Walesa. On June 4, 1989, Poland held semi-free elections that were won by Solidarity and the first democratic government of the former Soviet bloc was founded under the intellectual Tadeusz Mazowiecki. Walesa won a presidential election in 1990. Poland became a market economy overnight. Former communists who converted to social democracy regained power in 1995 with the election to the presidency of Aleksander Kwasniewski, who beat Walesa. Poland joined NATO in 1999 -- part of an enlargement for the Western military alliance that caused shockwaves in Russia. Poland has gone on to host NATO and US troops and is seen as a bulwark against Russian influence in the region. The country also finally joined the European Union in 2004 -- 14 years after starting membership negotiations. In 2005, Catholic conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski, cofounder and leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, won parliamentary elections. Soon after, his twin brother Lech was elected president. In the same year, John Paul II's death plunged the country into disarray. The liberal centrist Civic Platform (PO) party of future European Union president Donald Tusk took over in 2007 and held power until 2015. Poland came out of the global financial crisis relatively unscathed -- the only European Union member state to avoid recession. In 2010, a plane carrying Lech Kaczynski and several other leading Polish public figures crashed near Smolensk in Russia. All 96 people on board were killed. Jaroslaw Kaczynski ran for the presidency the same year but lost to liberal party candidate Bronislaw Komorowski. In 2015, the PiS regained power, winning both parliamentary and presidential elections. Since then, Duda and the PiS has been on a collision course with the European Union while pursuing ties with US President Donald Trump. sw/dt/amj/ach
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