WARSAW, POLAND – JUNE 01: Karol Nawrocki, presidential candidate of the Regulation and Justice Social gathering (PiS), gestures as he arrives together with his household to forged his poll at a polling station through the Polish presidential runoff election on June 01, 2025 in Warsaw, Poland. Right now’s election is a intently contested race between Nawrocki and Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw who’s supported by Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The election is seen as a take a look at of whether or not the federal government, with its centrist parliamentary coalition, can overcome the right-wing populism embodied by PiS. (Picture by Sean Gallup/Getty Photos)
Sean Gallup | Getty Photos Information | Getty Photos
Nationalist Karol Nawrocki, backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, clinched the Polish presidency in a good run-off race that spells hassle for the nation’s present pro-EU authorities.
A closing depend confirmed Nawrocki, who stood for the opposition Regulation and Justice (PiS) social gathering that misplaced its majority in 2023, secured 50.89% of votes towards the 49.11% of rival Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski. Early outcomes launched earlier than polls closed had put the liberal within the lead.
Nawrocki will succeed fellow conservative Andrzej Duda — who himself received the management with a razor-thin benefit towards Trzaskowski in 2020 — for a five-year time period and may then stand for re-election as soon as.
The Polish election was intently watched in Europe, the USA and battling Jap European neighbors Russia and Ukraine because it raises questions over the solidity of Warsaw’s future alignment with Brussels and Kyiv.
The top of state’s position in Poland is overshadowed by that of parliament, however the president retains a important veto over laws. Duda has exercised this to dam a number of reforms spearheaded by Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition.
Eurosceptic Nawrocki can likewise ship appreciable setbacks to former European Council President Tusk’s pro-EU authorities, which repaired fractured relations with Brussels and final yr unlocked funds of as much as 137 billion euros ($156 billion) of EU funds that had been frozen over rule-of-law considerations.
The nation of 37 million and the EU’s sixth-largest financial system was the largest internet beneficiary of EU funds in 2024.
“I am assured that the EU will proceed its superb cooperation with Poland. We’re all stronger collectively in our neighborhood of peace, democracy, and values,” EU Fee President Ursula von der Leyen mentioned Monday on the X social media platform. “So allow us to work to make sure the safety and prosperity of our widespread house.”
A beforehand staunch supporter of Ukraine in its battle towards Russia’s invasion so far, Poland has supplied intensive safety and logistical support to Kyiv and earlier in January assumed the rotating one-year EU presidency from the Kremlin’s chief European ally Hungary underneath the motto “Safety, Europe!”
Nawrocki has taken a extra important stance towards Kyiv throughout his marketing campaign, citing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s alleged poor 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 towards Russian hostilities.
A take a look at for right-wing populism in Europe
Critically, the Polish presidential runoff was the newest take a look at of the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, rekindled because the U.S. Trump-led MAGA victory in November. Nawrocki’s win broke the streak of extra liberal victories achieved in Romania and Portugal in Might.
U.S. Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem had urged Polish voters to increase their assist to Nawrocki through the first-ever Conservative Political Motion Convention in Poland final week, decrying his pro-EU opponent Trzaskowski as an “absolute prepare wreck of a pacesetter.”
“Donald Trump is a robust chief for us, however you could have a possibility to have simply as sturdy of a pacesetter in Karol, for those who make him the chief of this nation,” she mentioned. “You could be that shining metropolis on a hill that the remainder of Europe and the world will watch and know the way sturdy you might be, how free you might be since you’ve elected the proper chief that may shield it and defend it.”
Poland has maintained relationship with Washington, notably on safety, the place it evades Trump’s broader criticism towards — largely European — NATO allies who’ve traditionally failed to fulfill the coalition’s protection spending goal of two% 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 investing in U.S. arsenal starting from F-35 jets to Abrams tanks.
