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Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Polish presidential election: Eurosceptic Karol Nawrocki wins vote, officials say
Polish nationalist opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki won the second round of the country's presidential election with 50.89 per cent of the votes, the electoral commission said early on Monday on its website. His rival, Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal Warsaw mayor and an ally of the government led by Donald Tusk , got 49.11 per cent. Mr Nawrocki (42), a Eurosceptic historian and amateur boxer who ran a national remembrance institute, campaigned on a promise to ensure economic and social policies favour Poles over other nationalities, including refugees from neighbouring Ukraine. While Poland's parliament holds most power, the president can veto legislation, and the vote was being watched closely in Ukraine as well as Russia, the United States and across the European Union. READ MORE On social media platform X, current president Andrzej Duda, also a conservative, thanked Poles for going to vote in large numbers. Turnout was 71.31 per cent, the electoral commission said, a record for the second round of a presidential election. 'Thank you! For participating in the presidential elections. For the turnout. For fulfilling your civic duty. For taking responsibility for Poland. Congratulations to the winner! Stay strong Poland!' Mr Duda wrote. Mr Nawrocki's candidacy was backed by the right-populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ruled Poland until Mr Tusk's victory in parliamentary elections in late 2023. Given the president's veto power, Mr Nawrocki's victory will make it difficult for the government to pass any big reforms before the 2027 parliamentary election. Mr Nawrocki's win was a dramatic reversal of projections, after an exit poll, published as voting concluded, appeared to show Mr Trzaskowski would edge the contest with a 0.6 per cent advantage. That prompted Mr Trzaskowski to declare victory on stage at his campaign headquarters. 'We've won!' he announced to whoops and cheers from the crowd. '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,' he said. In a speech at his own campaign headquarters, Mr Nawrocki did not concede, saying he remained confident he would win when all the votes were counted. 'We will win and save Poland,' he said. 'We must win tonight.' During a bitterly fought and often bad-tempered campaign in recent weeks, the two men have offered very different visions of Poland, and the result of the race will have enormous implications for the country's political future, given the president's ability to veto government legislation. Mr Trzaskowski, the pro-European, progressive mayor of Warsaw, supports the liberalisation of abortion laws and the introduction of civil partnerships for LGBT couples. Mr Nawrocki has firmly rejected these moves and would probably veto any moves to implement them. The runoff came after neither candidate achieved more than 50 per cent of votes in a crowded first-round vote two weeks ago. Mr Nawrocki will replace the outgoing president, PiS ally Mr Duda, who will step down in August after completing two terms. Mr Tusk's time as prime minister has been marked by difficulties bringing his broad coalition into line, made harder by having an ideologically opposed president in office. While the presidential role is largely ceremonial, it does have some influence over foreign and defence policy, as well as the critical power to veto new legislation. This can only be overturned with a 60 per cent majority in parliament, which Mr Tusk's government does not have. – Agencies
Forbes
4 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Migration In Poland: Where The Two Presidential Candidates Stand
Karol Nawrocki (Left) and Rafal Trzaskowski (Right) take part in the last presidential debate before ... More elections day in Warsaw, Poland, May 12, 2025. Poland is to hold a second-round runoff election in early June to elect the next President. The two candidates appear polar opposites. Liberal-centrist Warsaw mayor, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform party, is facing off against conservative Karol Nawrocki who is technically independent but supported by the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS). Both candidates are using migration in Poland as a core campaign issue. Migration, particularly irregular migration, is one of the dominant issues in the country, particularly with regards to the war in Ukraine and Poland's eastern border with Belarus. In recent years, Belarus has been accused of deliberately shepherding asylum seekers and other irregular migrants over the border with Poland, as well as other EU member states such as Lithuania and Latvia, allegedly in order to destabilize the bloc. Amid this, PM Tusk announced the right to asylum in Polish territory had been suspended, a move which was condemned by human rights groups but defended by Tusk as part of his duty 'to protect the Polish and European border.' At the same time, Poland is currently facing accusations in the European Court of Human Rights that its forces have violently repelled people trying to seek shelter. The liberal Civic Platform candidate Rafal Trzaskowski has made immigration one of the main talking points in his campaign, apparently in a bid to match his more right-wing opponent on the issue and to avoid looking 'soft' as a liberal. He has, according to the news and analysis site Notes from Poland, previously spoken out about immigrant criminality, and increased patrols in the capital during his tenure as mayor. He also endorsed PM Tusk's suspension of asylum and said he wants to cut some benefits for people sheltering in Poland. In a debate with his opponent in late May, Trzaskowski spoke out about the upcoming EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which in theory could oblige Poland to take more refugees from the Middle East and Africa or face penalties. "The migration pact will never come into force," said Trzaskowski, according to the Polish Press Agency, adding that "if we help Ukrainians, we won't take anyone else." Using the presence of Ukrainian refugees in Poland to defer responsibility for those from elsewhere is a familiar strategy in Poland. As far back as 2018, former PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was invoking people fleeing Ukraine as an excuse to reject refugee resettlement from elsewhere. Nawrocki, for his part, has been even more strident on immigration. In that same debate, he called migration a 'major problem' and is reported to have said 'we need deportation centers for illegal migrants, not centers for their integration.' Notes from Poland, which has extensive analysis of the upcoming election, reported in April that Nawrocki had announced he would introduce a bill to make sure Polish citizens are not 'treated worse' than refugees in accessing public services, health- and child-care. Such rhetoric fits neatly with the existing populist playbook seen elsewhere around Europe, such as in Hungary. Such a strategy seeks to blame the EU for 'forcing' its member states to shoulder the burden of caring for refugees, at the expense of their own citizens. Poland, formerly regarded as a country of emigration has in recent years seen a significant increase in immigration. This has been driven in large part by people either fleeing Ukraine amid the war of Russian aggression, or looking for work in Poland (something that has long predated this current stage of the conflict with Russia). According to the Polish government, over 500,000 applications for residence permits were made in 2024, and Poland has long led the league table in the EU for the highest amount of permits issued each year. Whoever is elected President will play a prominent role in PM Tusk's future legislative agenda. While most political power rests with the parliament, the President has the power to veto legislation, meaning that a win for Trzaskowski would likely allow Tusk to fast-track legislation, while if Nawrocki wins there could be little progress. While migration in Poland is just one of the issues in this elections, it could prove decisive in the country's future direction.
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- General
- Bloomberg
Poland's Tight Election Puts Europe on Alert for Another Jolt
The rift runs deep in Kobylka, a sleepy Polish town on the northern outskirts of Warsaw. So much so that it's not just streets, but families that are split over who to vote for in this weekend's presidential election runoff. 'I know households like mine, where one half supports one candidate and the other half is in favor of the other,' Klaudia Koczyk, 33, said as she took a break in a park while her newborn twin girls slept in the spring sunshine.
