WARSAW, POLAND – JUNE 01: Karol Nawrocki, presidential candidate of the Law and Justice Party (PiS), gestures as he arrives together with his circle of relatives to solid his poll at a polling station all through the Polish presidential runoff election on June 01, 2025 in Warsaw, Poland. Today’s election is a carefully contested race between Nawrocki and Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw who’s supported via Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The election is observed as a check of whether or not the federal government, with its centrist parliamentary coalition, can triumph over the right-wing populism embodied via PiS. (Photo via Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Nationalist Karol Nawrocki, subsidized via U.S. President Donald Trump, clinched the Polish presidency in a decent run-off race that spells bother for the rustic’s present pro-EU executive.
A last rely confirmed Nawrocki, who stood for the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) celebration that misplaced its majority in 2023, secured 50.89% of votes in opposition to the 49.11% of rival Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. Early effects launched earlier than polls closed had put the liberal within the lead.
Nawrocki will prevail fellow conservative Andrzej Duda — who himself received the management with a razor-thin merit in opposition to Trzaskowski in 2020 — for a five-year time period and will then stand for re-election as soon as.
The Polish election used to be carefully watched in Europe, the United States and combating Eastern European neighbors Russia and Ukraine because it raises questions over the solidity of Warsaw’s long run alignment with Brussels and Kyiv.
The head of state’s position in Poland is overshadowed via that of parliament, however the president keeps a essential veto over regulation. Duda has exercised this to dam a number of reforms spearheaded via Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition.
Eurosceptic Nawrocki can likewise ship substantial setbacks to former European Council President Tusk’s pro-EU executive, which repaired fractured family members with Brussels and remaining 12 months unlocked bills of as much as 137 billion euros ($156 billion) of EU budget that were frozen over rule-of-law considerations.
The nation of 37 million and the EU’s sixth-largest economic system used to be the biggest internet beneficiary of EU budget in 2024.
“I’m confident that the EU will continue its very good cooperation with Poland. We are all stronger together in our community of peace, democracy, and values,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated Monday at the X social media platform. “So let us work to ensure the security and prosperity of our common home.”
A in the past staunch supporter of Ukraine in its struggle in opposition to Russia’s invasion up to now, Poland has introduced intensive safety and logistical assist to Kyiv and previous in January assumed the rotating one-year EU presidency from the Kremlin’s leader European best friend Hungary below the motto “Security, Europe!”
Nawrocki has taken a extra essential stance towards Kyiv all through his marketing campaign, bringing up Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s alleged deficient remedy of Poland. He additionally dominated out the embattled nation’s long-held ambition of adhering to NATO — a transfer feared to pit the army coalition in opposition to Russian hostilities.
A check for right-wing populism in Europe
Critically, the Polish presidential runoff used to be the newest check of the upward push of right-wing populism in Europe, rekindled for the reason that U.S. Trump-led MAGA victory in November. Nawrocki’s win broke the streak of extra liberal victories completed in Romania and Portugal in May.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had suggested Polish citizens to increase their reinforce to Nawrocki all through the first-ever Conservative Political Action Conference in Poland remaining week, decrying his pro-EU opponent Trzaskowski as an “absolute train wreck of a leader.”
“Donald Trump is a strong leader for us, but you have an opportunity to have just as strong of a leader in Karol, if you make him the leader of this country,” she stated. “You can be that shining city on a hill that the rest of Europe and the world will watch and know how strong you are, how free you are because you’ve elected the right leader that will protect it and defend it.”
Poland has maintained a excellent dating with Washington, in particular on safety, the place it evades Trump’s broader grievance in opposition to — in large part European — NATO allies who’ve traditionally failed to fulfill the coalition’s protection spending goal of 2% of GDP. Poland has exceeded this benchmark for the previous 5 years, logging a 4.12% contribution in 2024 — forward of the U.S.’ personal 3.38% — and making an investment in U.S. arsenal starting from F-35 jets to Abrams tanks.