Right-wing candidate Karol Nawrocki wins after shut race, legitimate effects display
The populist-right opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki, sponsored by means of the Law and Justice celebration (PiS), has gained Poland’s presidential election, defeating his pro-European rival Rafał Trzaskowski, in a nail-bitingly shut contest.
Official effects confirmed Nawrocki took 50.89% of votes within the runoff, with Trzaskowski on 49.11%.
Nawrocki’s victory is a significant blow for the coalition executive led by means of Donald Tusk and is predicted to lengthen the present political impasse within the nation in addition to complicate the rustic’s place in Europe.
The effects comes after a dramatic turnaround given the primary go out ballot printed simply because the polls closed had advised a slender win for Trzaskowski by means of 0.6pp, prompting him to claim victory.
Nawrocki didn’t concede, pronouncing he remained assured he would win when all of the votes had been counted. “We will win and save Poland,” he stated. “We must win tonight.”
During a bitterly fought and regularly bad-tempered marketing campaign in fresh weeks, the 2 males have presented very other visions of Poland, and the results of the race can have monumental implications for the rustic’s political long run, given the president’s talent to veto executive law.
Key occasions
US President Donald Trump made it transparent he sought after Nawrocki as Poland’s president and in the previous few days he additionally were given public backing from Kristi Noem, america secretary of place of birth safety.
Last month, the White House launched pictures of Nawrocki assembly Trump within the Oval Office – a tacit however unmistakable display of make stronger.
President Donald J. Trump welcomes Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki to the Oval Office 🇺🇸🇵🇱 pic.twitter.com/EzjPgygMxI
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 2, 2025
The conservative crew CPAC held its first assembly in Poland remaining week to provide Nawrocki a spice up, AP reported. Noem prompt Poles to vote for him. Speaking to the convention, she stated:
I simply had the chance to fulfill with Karol, and concentrate, he must be the following president of Poland. Do you know me?
The US has about 10,000 troops stationed in Poland and Noem advised that army ties may deepen with Nawrocki as president.
A commonplace chorus from Nawrocki’s supporters is that he’s going to repair “normality,” as they consider Trump has performed. US flags regularly gave the impression at Nawrocki’s rallies, and his supporters believed that he presented a greater likelihood for just right ties with the Trump management.
What does a Nawrocki victory imply for Poland’s overseas coverage?
Jon Henley
Ahead of the election, our Europe correspondent Jon Henley spoke to professionals about what a Nawrocki win would imply for the rustic’s overseas coverage. Here’s a snippet of what he wrote:
While in principle Polish presidents have restricted affect over overseas coverage, a win for Nawrocki, sponsored by means of PiS, would inevitably – and, in the end, considerably – constrain Poland’s European ambitions, analysts say.
“We’re not so much talking direct policy consequences,” stated Piotr Buras of the European Council on Foreign Relations thinktank. “But if Trzaskowski, Tusk’s candidate, loses, the message is that Poles reject him and his government.”
Deprived of that legitimacy, Tusk “will struggle to play the big role in the EU he has started to play”, Buras stated. “His government will be weaker, its room for manoeuvre will shrink. It’s about Poland’s capacity to play a strong role on the EU stage.”
Tusk’s electoral victory two years in the past marked the start of Poland’s go back to the European fold after two fractious phrases of populist national-conservative rule all the way through which Warsaw clashed many times with Brussels over rule of regulation considerations.
PiS additionally frequently picked needless fights with Germany, and in lots of EU debates sided with the intolerant Hungarian executive of the high minister, Viktor Orbán, the bloc’s disrupter-in-chief, additional alienating Poland from the European mainstream.
The go back of Tusk, elected on a promise to undo lots of the PiS-era reforms, ended in a sea exchange in members of the family, with the EU hastily unblocking greater than €100bn of budget it had frozen in retaliation for Poland’s backsliding on democratic norms.
Bolstered by means of a thriving financial system, emerging prosperity and its strategic significance within the resistance to Russia’s warfare on Ukraine, Warsaw has remodeled itself in two brief years into some of the EU’s maximum influential capitals, perfect friends with Berlin and Paris.
But its complete go back to the EU fold will also be entire provided that Tusk can ship on the ones key reforms – particularly, rolling again PiS’s politicisation of the court docket gadget – that experience thus far been blocked by means of the outgoing PiS-aligned president, Andrzej Duda.
President Andrzej Duda, a conservative like Nawrocki, has thanked citizens for collaborating within the election and congratulated his successor. In a submit on X, he wrote:
THANK YOU! For collaborating within the presidential elections. For the turnout. For pleasurable your civic accountability. For taking accountability for Poland. Congratulations to the Winner! Stay sturdy, POLAND!
Who is Karol Nawrocki?
Nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki is a former beginner boxer with a specific passion within the legal underworld. Here’s extra from AFP:
The 42-year-old Nawrocki has been recommended by means of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) celebration, which ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023.
The celebration is carefully allied with outgoing President Andrzej Duda – who has publicly sponsored Nawrocki – and is a long-standing rival of the ruling Civic Coalition.
Nawrocki campaigned beneath the slogan “Poland first, Poles first”.
While he has pledged to proceed Poland’s make stronger for neighbouring Ukraine towards Russia’s invasion, he has denounced the advantages given to warfare refugees.
He stated in a marketing campaign video in April that “social benefits will be above all for Poles” and that “in queues for doctors and clinics, Polish citizens must have priority”.
In May, he claimed Ukraine “has not shown gratitude for what Poles have done” and accused President Volodymyr Zelensky of “insolence”.
He opposes Ukraine’s bid to enroll in Nato and could also be an admirer of Donald Trump and has stated Poland will have to focal point on shaping and main Europe’s members of the family with america president.
He served because the director of the World War II museum in Gdansk from 2017 to 2021. Since then, he has led the Institute of National Remembrance, which investigates Nazi and communist-era crimes.
What does Nawrocki’s win imply for home politics?

Jakub Krupa
While the function of the Polish president is in large part ceremonial, it carries some affect over overseas and defence coverage and a vital energy to veto new law. This can most effective be overturned with a 60% majority in parliament, which the present executive, led by means of Donald Tusk, does no longer have.
At stake is whether or not Tusk’s executive will be capable to make growth on its electoral guarantees at the rule of regulation and social problems, together with abortion and LGBTQ rights, after 18 months of adverse cohabitation with the opposition president, Andrzej Duda.
Nawrocki’s win is predicted to lengthen the impasse, making it tricky if no longer not possible for the federal government to move any large reforms earlier than the 2027 parliamentary election.
“Tusk knows the stakes and that if Nawrocki wins, he’s got a lame-duck administration for the next couple of years. And it will be worse than with Duda as Nawrocki will come in fresh, with a new mandate from what effectively turned into a referendum on the government,” Prof Aleks Szczerbiak, who teaches east and central European politics on the University of Sussex, stated previous to the election.
Right-wing candidate Karol Nawrocki wins after shut race, legitimate effects display
The populist-right opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki, sponsored by means of the Law and Justice celebration (PiS), has gained Poland’s presidential election, defeating his pro-European rival Rafał Trzaskowski, in a nail-bitingly shut contest.
Official effects confirmed Nawrocki took 50.89% of votes within the runoff, with Trzaskowski on 49.11%.
Nawrocki’s victory is a significant blow for the coalition executive led by means of Donald Tusk and is predicted to lengthen the present political impasse within the nation in addition to complicate the rustic’s place in Europe.
The effects comes after a dramatic turnaround given the primary go out ballot printed simply because the polls closed had advised a slender win for Trzaskowski by means of 0.6pp, prompting him to claim victory.
Nawrocki didn’t concede, pronouncing he remained assured he would win when all of the votes had been counted. “We will win and save Poland,” he stated. “We must win tonight.”
During a bitterly fought and regularly bad-tempered marketing campaign in fresh weeks, the 2 males have presented very other visions of Poland, and the results of the race can have monumental implications for the rustic’s political long run, given the president’s talent to veto executive law.