FASCIST SLIM WIN
Polish PM Tusk calls for confidence vote following nationalist Nawrocki's presidential victory
Polish PM Donald Tusk said Monday he would call a confidence vote to reaffirm support for his pro-EU government after nationalist Karol Nawrocki narrowly won Sunday’s presidential election. Though Tusk's coalition holds a parliamentary majority, experts warn Nawrocki’s victory could deepen existing internal divisions.
Issued on: 02/06/2025
By: FRANCE 24
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk talks to the press at the 6th European Political Community summit on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Tirana, Albania. © Leon Neal, AP
In a televised address, Tusk said he would "ask for a vote of confidence in the lower house soon" in his coalition government.
He voiced hope that he would be able to cooperate with president-elect Karol Nawrocki.
"As prime minister, I will not stop for a moment my work and our common struggle for the Poland of our dreams... free, sovereign, safe and prosperous," Tusk said.
Polish PM Donald Tusk calls for confidence vote after nationalist wins presidency
"The presidential election has not changed anything here and will not change anything."
Tusk's government has had a majority in parliament since it took over from the Law and Justice (PiS) party following parliamentary elections in 2023.
But there are internal divisions in the coalition which experts say could be exacerbated by Nawrocki's victory.
Who is Karol Nawrocki, the nationalist historian who won Poland's presidency
Some analysts have predicted that the growing political tensions could bring down the government and prompt early parliamentary elections, which are not expected until 2027.
PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said just before Tusk spoke that Sunday's election result was a "red card" for the government.
He called for an "apolitical and technical government" of experts to take over.
Nawrocki, an admirer of US President Donald Trump, won by 51 percent to pro-EU liberal Rafal Trzaskowski's 49 percent.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Copyright AP Photo
By Euronews
Published on 02/06/2025 -
The presidential runoff pitted Trzaskowski, a liberal pro-EU politician, against Nawrocki, a conservative historian backed by the right-wing Law and Justice party.
Conservative Karol Nawrocki has won Poland’s weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count.
Nawrocki won 50.89% of votes in a nailbiting final race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%.
He will succeed conservative Andrzej Duda, whose second and final term ends on 6 August.
The close ballot had the country on edge since a first round two weeks earlier revealed deep divisions along the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union.
Although most day-to-day power lies in Poland lies with the prime minister, Donald Tusk, the president is able to influence foreign policy and, crucially, veto legislation.
Tusk, who came to power in late 2023 with a coalition government with a broad ideological divide, has been unable to muster enough support to fulfill certain electoral promises such as easing abortion law.
He is expected to face further obstacles with Nawrocki as president. The 42-year-old amateur boxer and political novice belongs to the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023.
A tight race
A first exit poll initially showed Trzaskowski with a slight lead over conservative historian Nawrocki, but two hours later an updated “late poll” showed Nawrocki winning 50.7%, more than Trzaskowski with 49.3%
Turnout was 72.8% - higher than the 67.3% reported in the first round on 18 May. Voting started at 7 am and ended at 9 pm.
At a conference at 6:30 pm, the chairman of the Polish National Electoral Commission said incidents had been reported during the voting, with "232 possible offences" taking place.
The runoff follows a tightly contested first round of voting on May 18, in which Trzaskowski won just over 31% and Nawrocki nearly 30%.
Both leaders claimed victory
Though the final result was still unclear on Sunday evening with the two locked in a near dead heat, both men claimed to have won in meetings with their supporters in Warsaw.
“We won,” Trzaskowski told his supporters to chants of “Rafał, Rafał.”
“This is truly a special moment in Poland’s history. I am convinced that it will allow us to move forward and focus on the future,” Trzaskowski said. “I will be your president.”
Nawrocki, speaking to his supporters at a separate event in Warsaw, said he believed he was on track to win. “We will win and save Poland,” he said. “We must win tonight.
Copyright AP Photo
By Katarzyna Kubacka
Published on 02/06/2025
The conservative candidate beat liberal Rafał Trzaskowski with a narrow 50.89% of the vote in the presidential election runoff on Sunday.
Karol Nawrocki is set to become Poland's next president after a tense race in the election runoff against liberal candidate Rafał Trzaskowski on Sunday.
The conservative politician has pledged to hinder Prime Minister Donald Tusk government's centrist, pro-EU ambitions for the remainder of its term.
These are the most essential facts to know about Poland’s newly elected conservative president.
A Gdańsk native, Nawrocki earned a degree in history from the University of Gdańsk in 2008, followed by a PhD in 2013. He also holds an international MBA from the Gdańsk University of Technology, which he earned in 2023.
During his presidential campaign, Nawrocki's critics questioned his role as head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), an organisation tasked with investigating and prosecuting Nazi and communist crimes between 1917 and 1990, which gave him access to top state secrets, including those classified under special security provisions.
Nawrocki started working at the IPN in 2009. He took a break for four years, during which he served as director of the World War II Museum in Gdańsk. In 2021, he returned to the IPN as president.
While at the IPN, he passed the vetting procedure of the Internal Security Agency (ABW). In the final days of the campaign, a media report claimed that ABW agents initially gave Nawrocki a negative recommendation.
The assessment was ultimately overruled by the agency's then-chief — a Law and Justice or PiS party appointee and adviser to now-former President Andrzej Duda. PiS argued the clearance was valid.
In 2024 he was put on a list of Polish nationals wanted by the Russian Interior Ministry due to his presence at the dismantling of the Red Army Gratitude Monument in Glubczyce in 2022.
Political views and opinions on economy
A candidate supported by the PiS, Nawrocki's political views are described as conservative and right-wing.
During the election campaign, he opposed compulsory vaccinations for both adults and children. He has also opposed Ukraine’s membership in NATO and the European Union until outstanding bilateral issues with the neighbouring country are resolved.
Nawrocki's election plan included, among other things, a pledge not to raise taxes and a reduction in VAT.
Other promises included the introduction of zero income tax relief for families with at least two children, tax-free inheritance, and the abolition of the Belka tax.
Nawrocki supports nuclear energy but maintains that, until Poland has its own nuclear power plant, coal should continue to be mined and used.
"I say a clear no to this. Until Poland achieves nuclear energy, Polish coal should be mined, fed into, and develop the Republic of Poland. Hands off Polish coal until we get to the atom," he said at a rally in Pajęczno in March.
"By rejecting green ideology, green taxes, and the EU ETS, and through the extraction of Polish coal, we will finally start paying normal electricity prices," he added.
Defence and conscription
Nawrocki advocated for voluntary conscription during his presidential campaign. During a presidential debate, he argued that Poland is not currently in a situation that should require forced conscription.
"I will be the president of a safe Poland in which conscription should be voluntary. It is necessary to build a strong, modern Polish army, at least 300,000 strong, with strong alliances, but it must remain voluntary, which is fundamental for me as well," Nawrocki said.
At his speech in Pajęczno, he reiterated that he would seek to expand the army. "Poland will be safe when it is militarily secure and has at least a 300,000-strong Polish army and a million reservists. This is what I will lead up to and what I will achieve as the supreme commander of the armed forces," Nawrocki said.
On 22 May, he signed a programme declaration prepared by the leader of the far-right Konfederacja or Confederation party, Sławomir Mentzen, consisting of eight demands.
Nawrocki has declared that as president he would not sign — among other things — laws restricting freedom of expression and access to weapons.
PiS-backed Karol Nawrocki wins Poland’s presidential election
Karol Nawrocki, a political newbie backed by the radical right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, has won Poland’s presidential election, official results showed on June 2.
Nawrocki won 50.89% of the vote, beating his centrist rival Rafał Trzaskowski, who won 49.11%. Turnout came in at 71.63%, which was high, but not high enough to secure Trzaskowski a victory.
The result is a major setback for Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government, which will have to face a hostile president likely to veto key reforms. That is likely to deepen voter frustration – which contributed to Trzaskowski’s defeat.
To date, Tusk’s agenda has already been blocked by the outgoing PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda. This is expected to continue after Nawrocki takes office in August.
The Tusk-led coalition is well short of a majority to override presidential vetoes. That might contribute further to the Tusk government’s losing popular support. Working against Duda, the government has seen its support figures slide to just 32% in a cyclical survey by CBOS, a state polling institution.
Nawrocki campaigned on a platform of making Poland “normal,” vowing to push back against closer ties with the EU, halt progress on LGBTQ+ rights and resist moves to liberalise abortion laws.
Nawrocki has also said he would curb the rights of Ukrainians in Poland and claimed Ukraine was taking advantage of Poland economically, using war as leverage.
His victory may also pave the way for PiS to return to power after the next general election in 2027. Party polls have already been showing that the incumbent coalition would lose a majority to PiS and the far-right Konfederacja party.
There have been no official statements from either candidate following the announcement of official results.
An exit poll, published just after polling stations closed on June 1, gave Trzaskowski a narrow lead of 0.6pp, an advantage that disappeared only two hours later after a late poll (combining exit poll data with some actual results) was out.
It was Nawrocki who had sensed a change was coming on the election night. “We are going to win tonight!” he told a crowd gathered at his election event.
The Trzaskowski camp had hoped that results from big cities, where liberals typically win by a huge margin, would tilt the final result back in its favour. The difference kept on narrowing – but not enough to change the outcome.
UPDATE: late poll has turned Poland’s presidential race on its head, with populist Nawrocki now in front
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A late poll, combining exit poll data with some official results, put Karol Nawrocki ahead with 50.7%, while Rafal Trzaskowski trailed at 49.3%, a 1.4 percentage point gap, shortly before midnight Poland time on June 1.
This margin is slightly wider than the exit poll – in which Trzaskowski was the leader – and has a margin of error of just 1pp, contrary to the exit poll's 2pp, now hinting at Nawrocki as the favourite to win.
If Nawrocki wins, it would be a major setback for Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government, which would face a hostile president likely to veto key reforms.
Tusk’s agenda has already been blocked by the outgoing PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda, and this is expected to continue if Nawrocki takes office in August. The Tusk-led coalition is well short of a majority to override presidential vetoes.
That might contribute further to the Tusk government’s losing popular support. Working against Duda, the government has seen its support figures slide to just 32% in a cyclical survey by CBOS, a state polling institution.
Nawrocki campaigned on a platform of making Poland “normal,” vowing to push back against closer ties with the EU, halt progress on LGBTQ+ rights and resist moves to liberalise abortion laws.
Nawrocki has also said he would curb the rights of Ukrainians in Poland and claimed Ukraine was taking advantage of Poland economically, using war as leverage.
Poland: Presidency Too Close To Call As Exit Polls Show Neck-And-Neck Race
By EurActiv
By Alexandra Brzozowski
(EurActiv) — Poland was left on a knife-edge on Sunday evening as the country’s presidential race remained too close to call after first exit polls were published.
According to an Ipsos exit poll at 21:00 CEST, the second-round run-off between liberal Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski and right-wing populist Karol Nawrocki will go down to the wire.
Neither Trzaskowski, projected to take 50.3% of the vote, nor Nawrocki (49.7%) had established a clear lead.
A late poll by Ipsos around 23:30 CET – which is essentially the exit poll, updated with partial results from 50% of polling stations where they conducted the poll – offered a plot twist, according to which Nawrocki has now gone into lead with 50.7% over 49.3% for Trzaskowski.
Official results from the National Electoral Commission are expected early Monday morning.
A key factor for the tight margin was a record turnout throughout the day, according to election officials. Turnout was estimated by Ipsos at 72.8%.
Immediately after the exit poll was published, Trzaskowski claimed victory, telling a gathering of supporters in Warsaw that “we’ve won.” Nawrocki told his supporters that “we will win and save Poland… We have to win tonight and we know that we will.”
Over 200,000 people registered to vote abroad between the first and second rounds of the election, for a record total of over 700,000 voters from abroad across the two rounds.
Poland’s diaspora has historically tended to vote more conservatively.
The race, one of the tightest in Poland’s post-communist history, caps a polarising campaign in which both candidates adapted their tone to appeal to younger, far-right-leaning voters.
A victory for Trzaskowski, the candidate backed by the ruling centrist Civic Coalition (KO) and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, would loosen the political gridlock that has paralysed Poland since his party took power in parliament last year.
With a liberal in the presidential palace, Prime Minister Donald Tusk would gain a crucial ally to push forward long-delayed judicial reforms, restore media independence, and possibly liberalise abortion laws and LGBTQ+ rights.
Conversely, a Nawrocki win would cement conservative control of the presidency until at least 2030, extending the influence of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party even after its loss of parliamentary control in 2023.
Nawrocki, a historian and former boxer who also gained the Trump administration’s political support, dodged a spate of scandals and campaigned on law-and-order messaging and vowed to defend “traditional Polish values.”
The far-right Confederation party, led by 38-year-old firebrand Sławomir Mentzen, did not make it to the second round but had siphoned support from both major blocs in the first round – signalling a broader reckoning over the country’s political direction.
EurActiv
EurActiv publishes free, independent policy news and facilitates open policy debates in 12 languages.
Rafał Trzaskowski comments on runoff election result with thanks and apologies
The Civic Platform candidate who lost out in Sunday's presidential runoff has spoken for the first time since the results were announced.
In a lengthy post published on X, Warsaw Mayor and PO presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski thanked his voters following his defeat in Sunday's presidential runoff.
"THANK YOU for every vote. I fought for us to build together a strong, safe, honest, empathetic Poland. A modern Poland where everyone will be able to fulfil their goals and aspirations. I would like to thank everyone who voted for such a Poland," he wrote.
In a dramatic turn of events, Trzaskowski lost to conservative Karol Nawrocki, who is supported by the Law and Justice (PiS) party and received 50.89% of the vote, slightly ahead of Trzaskowski's 49.11%.
Just after polling stations closed at 9 pm on Sunday, exit polls indicated that Trzaskowski had won and he acknowledged that victory during a speech in the early evening to undisguised enthusiasm and optimism among his staff.
However, later poll results published around two hours later indicated that Karol Nawrocki had won and on Monday morning, state electoral commission (PKW) data confirmed victory for the PiS candidate.
Rafał Trzaskowski greets supporters at his headquarters after the presidential election runoff in Warsaw, 1 June, 2025 AP Photo
"Thank you for your presence at the rallies. For all the kind words. For all the photos taken together, the hands shaken, for the shouts of support. For every banner displayed. Thank you for believing in me and voting for me on Sunday," Trzaskowski's X post continued.
The thanks were followed by an apology.
"And I apologise that I failed to convince the majority of citizens of my vision of Poland. I apologise that we did not win together."
Concluding that post, Trzaskowski sent a message of congratulations to the winner.
"I congratulate Karol Nawrocki on winning the presidential election. This victory is binding, especially in such difficult times. Especially with such an even result. May you keep this in mind."
Election commission data showed that Nawrocki won with 10,606,877 votes, with Trzaskowski finishing with 10,237,286.
"Thank you for everything. See you soon!" said Trzaskowski, ending his post with a hear emoji.
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