The Warsaw Referendum Operation collected 111,000 signatures by Monday's deadline, below the roughly 132,000 required to trigger a referendum, campaign organizer Maciej Wilk said.
"There will be no referendum in Warsaw," Wilk told a news briefing.
Organizers had been collecting signatures since July 30 for a vote to remove Trzaskowski and the Warsaw City Council before the end of their terms.
Under Polish law, a local recall referendum requires support from 10 percent of eligible voters to be called. In Warsaw, that meant about 132,000 signatures.
Wilk described the two-month campaign as a grassroots effort and said political parties had largely stayed out of it.
"I am surprised that Law and Justice (PiS), as an opposition party, did not get involved in collecting signatures, even within its own structures,” he said, referring to Poland's main right-wing opposition party.
The campaign had presented itself as nonpartisan. Its organizers criticized City Hall over the management of municipal companies and services, investment policy and the city’s long-term development.
Wilk also claimed the signature drive had prompted Trzaskowski to become more publicly active over the past two months. He said campaign volunteers deserved some of the credit for the mayor making more appearances and publicizing City Hall's work.
Trzaskowski rejected that interpretation and thanked Warsaw residents who had supported him and his plans for the capital.
"I have more than two years ahead of me as mayor of Warsaw; two more years of work to carry out the city’s development plans," he wrote on social media.
He said he had heard both positive and critical views from residents during meetings over the previous two months and would try to take them into account.
Trzaskowski, a senior politician with Poland's main governing Civic Coalition (KO) party, has served as mayor of Warsaw since 2018.
Although the referendum campaign has ended, Wilk said its organizers plan to continue their activity through a new civic group. He said it would monitor City Hall, examine council resolutions and act as a point of contact for residents.
Had organizers collected enough signatures to force a vote, turnout would also have determined whether the result was valid.
A recall referendum must attract at least three-fifths of the number of voters who took part in the election of the authority being challenged. In Warsaw, the required turnout would have been about 450,000.
Warsaw has held one previous referendum to recall a sitting mayor. In October 2013, opponents of then-Mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz forced a vote amid criticism over public transport, waste collection and delays to major infrastructure projects.
The attempt failed because turnout was too low. Some 25.66 percent of eligible voters took part, below the threshold required for the referendum to be valid.
Meanwhile, Kraków, Poland's second-largest city, is set to hold a runoff election on October 11 to choose a new mayor after a recall referendum in May removed then-Mayor Aleksander Miszalski.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR/PAP