Nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki won Poland’s presidential election, official results showed on Monday, in a major blow for the country’s pro-EU government.
The 42-year-old, an admirer of US President Donald Trump, scored 50.89 percent of votes in Sunday’s runoff, the national election commission said.
His 53-year-old rival Rafal Trzaskowski, Warsaw’s pro-EU mayor and an ally of the country’s centrist government, won 49.11 percent in the highly polarised NATO and EU nation.
“Congratulations to the winner!” outgoing conservative President Andrzej Duda said on X.
Duda, who had endorsed Nawrocki, thanked Poles for “carrying out your civic duty” and for the turnout, which was 71.63 percent.
The results followed a tense evening as both candidates had claimed victory when an exit poll indicated they were neck and neck.
“We will win and we will save Poland,” Nawrocki told a crowd of supporters at his election night rally in Warsaw soon after polling stations closed.
Nawrocki’s win will block the government’s progressive agenda for abortion and LGBTQ rights and could revive tensions with Brussels over rule of law issues.
It could also undermine strong ties with neighbouring Ukraine as he is critical of Kyiv’s EU and NATO accession plans and wants to cut benefits for Ukrainian refugees.
Nawrocki visited the White House during his campaign and said he had been told by Trump: “You will win.”
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also endorsed Nawrocki when she attended a conservative conference in Poland last week, saying: “He needs to be the next president.”
Polish presidents have some influence over foreign and defence policy and wield veto power over legislation, which can only be overturned by a three-fifths majority in parliament, which the government does not have.
Reforms planned by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a former European Council president who came to power in 2023, have been held up by a deadlock with the current president.
Many Nawrocki supporters said they want stricter curbs on immigration and advocate conservative social values and more sovereignty for the country within the European Union.
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