Nationalist opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki narrowly won Poland’s presidential election, results showed, delivering a major blow to the centrist government’s efforts to cement Warsaw’s pro-European orientation.
Nationalist opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki narrowly won Poland’s presidential election, results showed on Monday, delivering a major blow to the centrist government’s efforts to cement Warsaw’s pro-European orientation.In a victory for European conservatives inspired by U.S. President Donald Trump, Nawrocki secured 50.89% of the vote, election commission data showed, an outcome that presages more political gridlock as he is likely to use his presidential veto to thwart Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s liberal policy agenda.
Sign up here.Tusk’s government has been seeking to reverse judicial reforms made by the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) government, but current President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, has blocked its efforts — a pattern Nawrocki is likely to continue.Nawrocki’s rival, Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal Warsaw mayor who was standing for Tusk’s ruling Civic Coalition (KO), got 49.11%, the data showed. Both candidates had declared victory immediately after the publication of an exit poll late on Sunday that showed the result would be very close.»I’m sorry that I didn’t manage to convince the majority of citizens of my vision of Poland», Trzaskowski said on X. «I congratulate Karol Nawrocki on winning the presidential election.
