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The new president

Poland: who is Karol Nawrocki, the historian, amateur boxer, nationalist and anti-EU

He won the presidential election by cultivating a tough guy image during the campaign, posting videos in shooting ranges and boxing rings

Karol Nawrocki, candidato del partito di opposizione di destra nazionalista Pis, e il suo figlio Antoni, mostrano il segno della vittoria dopo i risultati delle presidenziali polaccheREUTERS/Aleksandra Szmigiel

2' min read

2' min read

Karol Nawrocki, the conservative historian who won Poland's presidential election, cultivated a tough guy image during the campaign, posting videos of himself in shooting ranges and boxing rings. While his liberal opponent Rafal Trzaskowski flaunted his European credentials, Nawrocki met Donald Trump at the White House and received the US president's endorsement for his candidacy for the highest office in Poland.

According to the final result of the electoral commission, Nawrocki won the election with 50.89% of the vote.

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Unlike other Central European Eurosceptics, such as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico or Hungary's Viktor Orbán, Nawrocki however supports the provision of military aid to help Ukraine repel the three-year-long Russian invasion.

But he has stated that, if elected, he will oppose Ukraine's membership in NATO, a position that seeks to harmonise with declining support for Ukrainians among Poles, who have hosted over a million refugees from across the border. His supporters in the Law and Justice (PiS) party had supported Kiev's accelerated EU and NATO membership during his term until the end of 2023.

Nawrocki's critics argue that he has fuelled Polish discontent with Ukrainian refugees at a time when the far right is highlighting the problems of immigration, cost of living and security.

His campaign slogan was, 'Poland first'. 'Let us help others, but take care of our own citizens first', he declared on social media in April. The problem is that Poland is split in two. With a pro-European premier and a right-wing, pro-Trump nationalist president, who has often taken anti-EU positions and has even taken revisionist positions on the Holocaust in the past.

Nawrocki is likely to follow a similar path to outgoing President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally who used his veto power to block the pro-European government's attempts to undo the judicial reforms of the previous right-wing administration.

Nawrocki's past has been the subject of intense public debate in recent weeks following a series of negative media reports. There have been questions about his purchase of a flat from a pensioner and an admission of taking part in orchestrated fights. "All my sporting activities were based on the strength of my heart, the strength of my muscles, my fists," Nawrocki, an amateur boxer, said during a debate following reports that he was involved in mass brawls between hooligans. 'It was a fair competition, regardless of form'.

His supporters from the Law and Justice party accused the government of orchestrating the controversy with the help of the Polish secret service and the progressive media. The government rejected all the accusations.

But Nawrocki described the election as a referendum on the government, which he described as a metropolitan elite distant from its concerns. "I am simply one of you," he told voters in the eastern town of Biala Podlaska during the campaign. (R.Es.)

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