Poles on Nawrocki and Tusk's cooperation: 'two different worlds'

Euronews

3 days ago

At a press conference in Vilnius on Monday, President Andrzej Duda commented for the first time on the results of the second round of the presidential election.
"I hope that for Prime Minister Tusk and the government, this is an unambiguous signal from the Poles that they expect the kind of policy in their majority that the President-elect proposes and that Karol Nawrocki preached during his campaign," said the President.
Both candidates, in their post-election speeches, declared their intention to build bridges in a divided society.
Karol Nawrocki, the candidate backed by the Law and Justice Party, remained hopeful after the exit poll results—and his optimism proved justified, as later polls and the official results from the State Electoral Commission confirmed his victory.
"I believe that tomorrow we will wake up with our President Karol Nawrocki, who will put together a half-crawled Poland," praised the PiS-backed candidate.
Rafał Trzaskowski, after exit polls suggested he was winning, said he would be the president of all Poles.
"I believe that the first, most important task of the president of Poland will be to reach out to all those who did not vote for me," he said.
At Monday's conference, PKW chairman Sylwester Marciniak officially announced that Karol Tadeusz Nawrocki received 10,606,877 valid votes, while Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski got 10,237,286. The difference between them was fewer than 370,000 votes, or 1.78 percentage points – the smallest gap in a presidential run-off since 1989.
This shows how deeply divided society is and suggests possible political instability.
Will relations between Donald Tusk's government and the new president-elect improve?
We asked the people of Warsaw.
"They are on opposite sides and don't agree. But Nawrocki is a big unknown. Also, nobody knows anything," said one passer-by.
Another Warsaw resident toned down the mood: "We need to cool down first. Is it even possible to arrange something? I hope, however, that wisdom will win out and somehow these relations will settle down. And this nation will not be as divided as it is at the moment."
"There is no agreement between the government and the president. There are two different worlds: the Polish world and the German world," another man commented.
And his companion referred to Karol Nawrocki's passion for sport: "He has religious values and is a boxer. And a boxer will box."
"It looks as if the new president Nawrocki was elected almost on demand, so that the coalition can complain for the next five years about how they can't get anything done because the president closes the door in front of their noses," commented, in turn, a Pole who has lived in the UK for twenty years.
"I'm not Polish, but I think the situation is very bad and it's going to be super hard," a young Belarusian citizen who lives permanently in Poland told Euronews.
Two days after the first round of the presidential election, Donald Tusk announced the renegotiation of the coalition agreement and the reconstruction of the government, which was to take place after the election of the president.
"The atmosphere has to cool down after the elections. I am not saying it will be next year, but in June I will already be back calmly from talks with my coalition partners. Not to take anything away from them, but to make this government smaller – although in good proportions for everyone – and much more efficient," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said during an interview with TVP.
In a televised speech later on Monday, he announced his intention to hold a confidence vote in parliament without giving any more details.
Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he would ask parliament to hold a vote of confidence in his coalition government after his ally, the liberal Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, lost Sunday's presidential runoff.
Conservative Karol Nawrocki won the election, finishing with 50.89% of the vote.
"Regardless of how we evaluate the winning candidate, we should acknowledge his victory and congratulate his voters," Tusk said in a televised speech on Monday.
"I want to declare to you that I will not stop for a moment as prime minister of our government. The presidential elections have not changed anything here and will not change anything. We will cooperate with the new president where necessary and possible."
The result leaves Tusk politically weakened and there are questions about whether his multi-party coalition can survive to the end of its term in late 2027.
If he survives the confidence vote, it would show he still has a mandate to govern.
It is not clear when the confidence vote might take place.
Nawrocki 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, 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 fulfil 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 is supported by the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) which governed Poland from 2015 to 2023.
Party leader Jarosław Kaczyński appealed on Monday to all political forces to support the formation of a technocratic government.
"Today we need a solution in the form of a technical government, which, like the president, will be non-partisan. The head of this government must be selected in talks with those who would be ready to support such a project. It would not have to be someone who has ties to us," he said.
"Individual ministries would be managed by specialists in specific areas of social life."