Poland is facing political deadlock after pro-Trump candidate Karol Nawrocki, backed by the country’s right-wing opposition, won Sunday’s presidential by less than two percentage points.
With all ballots counted, Mr Narwocki emerged victorious on 50.89 per cent with a record turnout of nearly 73 per cent of Poland’s 29 million registered voters.
Mr Nawrocki finished around 370,000 votes ahead of the pro-EU, government-backed candidate Rafal Trzaskowski.
After polls closed at 9pm, Mr Trzaskowski was quick to accept victory as exit polls put him narrowly ahead. As counting got under way, though, he fell behind and a gap began to open up that he was unable to close.
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The result by a self-declared “Poland first” candidate, who was endorsed by US president Donald Trump, is a major blow to Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk. He was counting on a victory of his ally Mr Trzaskowski to end a political deadlock that has plagued his government since taking office in December 2023.
For the last 18 months an uneasy cohabitation with Andrzej Duda has seen the PiS president use his veto powers regularly to block key Tusk legislative initiatives.
On Sunday Mr Duda, whose second term ends on August 6th, congratulated Mr Nawrocki on his victory and thanked voters for turning out in large numbers, “for fulfilling their duty as citizens” and “for taking responsibility for Poland”.
The prospect of more of the same under Mr Nawrocki could see Mr Tusk pull the plug instead and call snap elections.
Either way Poland is entering a period of uncertainty, with deep political polarisation likely to paralyse the country still further and throw into doubt its EU path and Nato commitment.
Minutes after polls closed, with a narrow win projected for Mr Trzaskowski, he appeared to claim “we won, we did everything that could be done.
“I will be the president of all Poles – of all Polish women and men,” he added.
There was no hint of concession over in the rival camp, with Mr Nawrocki promising eventual victory to supporters who cheered “president Narwocki” and claimed “we won.”
“This night will be ours yet,” he said. “We managed to unite the patriotic camp in Poland, the camp of people who want a normal Poland without illegal immigrants.”
The result was a huge win for PiS chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski who plucked Mr Narwocki, a 42 year-old conservative historian and former amateur boxer, from relative obscurity to be a PiS-backed candidate.
“We have won because we are right,” said Mr Kaczynski, “because we speak the truth about Poland, about its future, about its present and about all that’s wrong in our country today.”
On Sunday night the PiS leader cheered his candidate’s triumph over a “Niagara of lies” from rivals and the media during the campaign.
These included revelations about an undeclared second home and claims, denied by Mr Nawrocki, about links to organised crime and the red light scene in his native Gdansk.
Mr Nawrocki acknowledged another revelation that, 20 years ago, he participated in organised football hooligan fights, which he called a form of “noble, masculine combat”.
On the campaign trail Mr Nawrocki presented himself as the people’s candidate and the last protection against a looming “coup” by Mr Tusk.
After closing the gap to victory in the first round to just two points, Mr Nawrocki promised to be head of a state “conscious of its national tradition, great victories and defeats”.
“I will be the president of your future, I won’t allow our future and our children’s’ future to be stolen by those who want the destruction of the Polish state,” he told supporters a week ago in Warsaw.
Among his promises: to push back further against irregular immigration and to ramp up nuclear power. He also attacked the EU’s proposed Green Deal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050: “We are for the Polish farmer, the Polish field and Polish bread at the Polish table.”
