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Warsaw, Poland – June 01: Karol Nawrocki, presidential candidate for the Law and Justice Party (IP), beckoned on arrival with his family to vote in a polling station during the election of Polish presidential runoff on June 01, 2025 in Warsovie, Poland. Today’s election is a closely disputed race between Nawrocki and Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw who is supported by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The election is considered a test to find out if the government, with its centrist parliamentary coalition, can overcome right -wing populism embodied by IPs. (Photo of Sean Gallup / Getty Images)
Sean Gallup | Getty Images News | Getty images
Nationalist Karol Nawrocki, supported by US President Donald Trump, won the Polish presidency in a tight runoff that expresses problems for the country’s current pro-UE government.
A final count showed that Nawrocki, who represented the Party of Opposition Law and Justice (PIS) which lost its majority in 2023, obtained 50.89% of the votes against the 49.11% of the rival mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski. The first results published before the closed surveys had put the liberal in mind.
Nawrocki will succeed his colleague Conservative Andrzej Duda – who himself won management with a thin advantage against Trzaskowski in 2020 – for a five -year term and can then be re -elected once.
The Polish elections were closely monitored in Europe, in the United States and fighting the neighbors of Eastern Europe in Russia and Ukraine while it raises questions about the solidity of the future alignment of Warsaw in Brussels and kyiv.
The role of head of state in Poland is overshadowed by that of Parliament, but the president retains a critical veto on the legislation. Duda has exercised this to block several reforms led by the Coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Eurosceptic Nawrocki can also provide considerable setbacks to the pro-EU government of the president of former European president Tusk, who repaired fractured relations with Brussels and last year unlocked payments until until 137 billion euros ($ 156 billion) EU funds that had been frozen for law rule concerns.
The country of 37 million and the sixth EU economy was the The largest net beneficiary EU funds in 2024.
“I am convinced that the EU will continue its very good cooperation with Poland. We are all stronger together in our community of peace, democracy and values,” the president of the EU commission, Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday on Monday On the social media platform X. “So let’s work to ensure the safety and prosperity of our common house.”
A previously faithful supporter of Ukraine in its fight against the invasion of Russia to date, Poland has offered great security and logistical aid to kyiv and earlier in January assumed the presidency of the EU in a rotating year From the European Kremlin -Chief ally under the motto “Security, Europe!”
Nawrocki adopted a more critical position towards kyiv during his campaign, citing the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy Allegedly from Poland. He also excluded the country’s long -standing ambition in the country to join NATO – a decision fears to put the military coalition against Russian hostilities.
A test for right -wing populism in Europe
Above all, Polish presidential runoff was the last test of the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, revived since Maga’s victory led by the United States in November. Nawrocki’s victory won the more liberal victories sequence obtained in Romania and Portugal in May.
The American Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had urged Polish voters to support Nawrocki during the very first conservative political action conference in Poland last week, describing his pro-EU opponent Trzaskowski as “absolute train wreck of a leader”.
“Donald Trump is a strong leader for us, but you have the opportunity to have just as strong from a leader in Karol, if you make him the leader of this country,” She said. “You can be this brilliant city on a hill that the rest of Europe and the world will look at and know how strong you are, how free you are because you have elected the right leader who will protect him and defend him.”
Poland has maintained a good relationship with Washington, in particular on security, where it escapes the wider criticism of Trump against the Allies – largely European – NATO which failed to achieve the objective of defense expenses of the coalition of 2% of GDP. Poland has exceeded this reference in the past five years, recording a 4.12% contribution In 2024 – In advance of the 3.38% American – and investing in an American arsenal ranging from the F -35 jets to the Abrams tanks.
