Election of direction: Legal pressure in Poland: Conservative becomes the new president

The right -wing conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki narrowly won the presidential election in Poland. Large Polish media called him to the winner early in the morning, the election management in Warsaw confirmed the result after the end of the voting count. The victory of the 42-year-old EU skeptic is expected to change changes to the foreign and domestic policy course of the neighboring country, which plays an important role in the European Union and NATO.

According to preliminary information from the state election commission, the politically inexperienced historian Nawrocki accounted for 50.89 percent of the vote in the runoff election. His opposite candidate, the Proeuropean Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, came to 49.11 percent. Both candidates received more than ten million votes, Nawrocki’s lead was around 370,000 votes.

Trzaskowski congratulates the election winner

The liberal -conservative Trzaskowski congratulated its rival in the morning – and also found warning words: “This victory, especially in such difficult times and with such a difficult time. They should remember that,” he wrote about X. Trzaskowski the evening before for forecasts was insured in front of his followers that he wanted to be “the president of all the Polish and Polish”.

The 53 -year -old thanked his voters – and apologized. “I’m sorry that I have not been able to convince the majority of the citizens of my vision of Poland.”

Successful PIS revenge

Nawrocki is officially independent, but started as a candidate for the right -wing conservative PIS, Poland’s largest opposition party. The PIS ruled the country from 2015 to 2023. It put the judiciary to the scandaral of politics and was in the long -term clinch with Brussels because of this intervention.

In 2023 a center-left alliance came to the government; Former EU Council President Donald Tusk returned as Prime Minister. But it stayed with a permanent dispute with President Andrzej Duda, who also comes from the Pis and was not allowed to compete in office after ten years. Duda braked Tusk’s reform plans with his strong veto law. The Prime Minister hoped to dissolve this blockade with the liberal trzaskowski on the top of the state.

Relationship with Berlin could become more difficult

Poland is an important supporter of the Ukraine attacked by Russia. The country, with almost 38 million inhabitants, also sees itself threatened and upgraded by Moscow. Unlike in Slovakia, Hungary or Romania, there is no serious politician in Poland who represents pro -Russian positions. In the most important foreign policy question, the support for Ukraine, Duda and Tusk also pulled together. This could change with Nawrocki, which is, for example, against a possible NATO accession of Ukraine.

While Tusk, as head of government, the relationship between Warsaw and Berlin relaxes, Nawrocki is more likely to represent the PIS-hostile line of the PIS and was looking for proximity to US President Donald Trump in the election campaign. He renewed the demand for reparations for the damage that Nazi Germany caused in Poland in World War II. Nawrocki, he emphasized that, does not want anything for Poland to be prescribed by the EU.

First reactions from Brussels and Berlin

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Nawrocki on his victory and hoped for a good cooperation. “I am confident that the EU will continue its very good cooperation with Poland,” wrote from the Leyen on the Platform X. She added: “Together we are all more in our community of peace, democracy and values.”

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier congratulated Nawrocki on the election and emphasized the close partnership between the two neighboring countries. “The German-Polish friendship is a heart concern for me. Let us strengthen the friendship of our peoples together!” He wrote, according to a message.

Despite the victory of the right-wing conservative Nawrocki, the Federal Government’s new Poland representative, Knut Abraham, does not assume far-reaching consequences for Germany. “Of course this is a really difficult result,” the CDU member of the Bundestag told Radio Eins from RBB. “What is clear that the tonality could become a little more inharmonous, that affects the relationship with Germany, but also the relationship with Ukraine.”

Wahl shows deep split in Poland

On the election evening, a first forecast initially saw Trzaskowski in front, and the 53-year-old social scientist was already a election winner. However, he is considered very far to the left even in his political camp and was a red cloth for many voters in Catholic rural regions of the country.

The individual results, which had been in -depth overnight, demonstrated the deep political division of Poland, which has achieved great economic successes in recent years. Trzaskowski won in the big cities such as Warsaw, Krakow and Lodz, which particularly benefited from the upswing. Nawrocki was ahead in smaller cities and the rural regions of Poland.

One reason for the defeat of Trzaskowski could be that the liberal and left -wing camp did not exhaust its voter potential. The turnout was officially three percentage points higher with 71.63 percent than in the previous presidential election five years ago. But when victory over the PIS in the 2023 parliamentary election, a record number of 74.4 percent of the voters had given up their votes.

Amateur boxers and historians at the top of the state

“We will save and save Poland. We will not allow Donald Tusks to be strengthened,” said Nawrocki after the first forecasts announced. So far he was director of the Institute for National Memory (IPN), a kind of Polish counterpart to the now dissolved Stasi documents in Germany.

For a sensation – and sympathy with some voters – always caused his past as an amateur boxer at a young age and as a bouncer during his studies in a luxury hotel with possible contacts in the red light milieu. But in the first ballot two weeks ago, Nawrocki and further right -wing candidates had received a clear majority together.

In Poland, the President serves five years. The head of state has more powers than the Federal President in Germany and not only represents the country to the outside world. The President also has an impact on foreign policy, he appoints the head of government and the cabinet and is a high -commander of the Polish armed forces in the event of war. Above all, however, he can make life difficult for the government with his veto law.