Who is Poland's newly elected president, Karol Nawrocki?

Euronews

02-06-2025

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.
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.
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.
A week after a car ploughed into crowds during a Liverpool FC victory parade, turning scenes of joy into horror, UK police have named the suspect as Paul Doyle.
Doyle, who comes from the Liverpool area, has been charged with intentionally causing grievous bodily harm and six other serious counts.
Almost 80 people – aged between nine and 78 – were injured in the incident last Monday, with at least 50 of them treated in hospitals.
The city had been celebrating Liverpool's 20th Premier League title when the driver ploughed into fans. Police believe he had tailed an ambulance in order to pass road blocks onto Water Street, which was closed for the victory parade.
Merseyside Police swiftly disclosed the suspect's nationality and ethnicity hours after the attack, describing him as a 53-year-old white, British man from the Liverpool area. Shortly afterwards, they ruled out terrorism as the motive of the attack and said they believed the man acted alone.
Experts praised the police's intervention to quickly fill the "information void."
An attack in the English town of Southport last July – in which a 17-year-old murdered three young girls – triggered the wild spread of disinformation about the suspect's identity, culminating in violent street riots.
Experts say police acted swiftly last week amid the Liverpool car ramming incident in a bid to stamp out speculation and avoid any unrest.
Yet, despite the police's swift action, speculation and false claims about the suspect still spread rapidly on social media in the hours after the crash.
Social media posts shared later on Monday evening, after police revealed a 53-year-old had been detained, claim to show a screenshot of the "real" driver of the Ford Galaxy car that had rammed into the crowd.
A post shared at 21:46 local time on Monday reads: "The initial reports said he was 53 years old and white. Those reports appear to be wrong. This is the driver from the van. Young, and definitely not white. Coverup already running."
The same claim was replicated in posts across X, Facebook and Instagram, falsely claiming the police were hiding the real identity of the driver.
The claim is false and Merseyside police have confirmed to Euroverify that the man in the photo isn't the suspect.
Several posts relaying the false claim remain on X, the Elon Musk-owned social media platform, without any Community Notes to alert users that the information is untrue.
We traced the screenshot of the man to a TikTok video shared from the Liverpool parade earlier that same evening.
The man can be seen joking around, entering the police car and wearing a policeman's hat. TikTok users point out in the comments on the video that he's being falsely signalled as the driver in other social media posts.
According to Euroverify's analysis, this TikTok video was taken on a location on James Street in Liverpool city centre, which was closed for the Liverpool FC parade, according to information provided by the club, suggesting it was taken during the celebrations on 26 May.
Another video shared widely online shows a man struggling with police on the ground at the scene of the incident.
This man is falsely described as the "53-year-old white, British man" detained by police, with social media users claiming he was not the driver of the vehicle.
"Apparently the guy on the floor is the 53-year-old white man who was also arrested, NOT the driver!" one Facebook post claims.
We identified the location of the scene as Water Street in Liverpool's city centre, where the crash happened. The images are consistent with corroborated images of the scene of the crash.
But the claim is false: Merseyside Police confirmed to Reuters that the man pictured in this video is not the suspect detained.
Euroverify detected further uncorroborated claims about the suspect, including several posts alleging he is a member of the UK police force and that a cover up is underway to conceal his identity.
The suspect has since been identified as a former Royal Marine, who is a father of three and a local businessman.