Conservative Karol Nawrocki sworn in as Polish president

6/8/2025 18:30

Karol Nawrocki, a conservative

historian and supporter of Donald Trump's MAGA movement, was

sworn in as Poland's president on Wednesday, setting the stage

for conflict with the centrist government and potentially cooler

relations with Ukraine.



Nawrocki took the presidential oath in a ceremony in the

Polish parliament.



The election victory of Nawrocki, who was backed by the

nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), dealt a blow

to Prime Minister Donald Tusk's hopes of cementing the

pro-European Union course he has set for the bloc's largest

eastern member and left his government floundering in the polls.



Poland is now bracing for a continuation of the deadlock

seen under nationalist outgoing President Andrzej Duda, with

Nawrocki able to use his veto powers to stymie a government

agenda that includes rolling back judicial reforms implemented

by PiS, which critics said undermined the independence of the

courts.



Nawrocki also looks set to pose a headache for the

government by proposing measures such as tax cuts that are

likely to be popular with many voters but hard to implement for

an administration with a stretched budget.



"As prime minister, I have so far worked with three

presidents," Tusk, who was also prime minister from 2007 to

2014, wrote in a post on X. "What will it be like with the

fourth? We'll manage."







MUCH UNCERTAINTY



The incoming president has said he does not currently see a

place for Ukraine in NATO or the EU, a marked shift in tone

compared to Duda.



As president, Nawrocki would be required to sign off on

Poland's ratification of a new member joining NATO.



While Tusk has said that the European Union should play a

bigger role in defence matters alongside NATO, PiS and Nawrocki

have argued this would undermine Poland's alliance with the

United States.



"The United States is undoubtedly our priority partner,"

said Nawrocki's spokesman Rafal Leskiewicz.



However, the fact that the former head of the Institute of

National Remembrance is a political newcomer who was little

known to the public before PiS threw its weight behind him means

there is much uncertainty about how his presidency will pan out,

political observers say.



"I don't know if he will, in short, fully implement the

policies of Law and Justice ... or if he will try to come up

with his own initiatives," said Andrzej Rychard, a sociologist

from the Polish Academy of Science.



Nawrocki emerged victorious from a tumultuous campaign in

which allegations regarding his past, including that he acquired

a second property from an elderly man in return for a promise of

care that he did not provide, frequently dominated the

headlines.



Nawrocki denied accusations of wrongdoing, although he

admitted to taking part in an organised fight between football

hooligans, adding to the tough-guy image the amateur boxer had

already sought to cultivate.



After the election, supporters of defeated liberal candidate

Rafal Trzaskowski filed thousands of protests to the Supreme

Court over irregularities at some polling stations. However, the

irregularities were not enough to materially alter the result.



PiS accuse their liberal opponents of trying to subvert the

will of the people and their supporters plan to march in the

capital on inauguration day.



"Whoever can - come to Warsaw ... for the swearing-in of the

president," PiS lawmaker Michal Wojcik wrote on X. "Let's show

that patriots are with Karol Nawrocki on this important day."