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

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.)