Warsaw, June 3: Conservative Karol Nawrocki has won Poland’s weekend presidential runoff election, according to the final vote count.Nawrocki won 50.89% of votes in a very tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who received 49.11%.
The close race had the country on edge since a first round two weeks earlier and through the night into Monday, revealing deep divisions in the country along the eastern flank of NATO and the European Union.
An early exit poll released Sunday evening suggested Trzaskowski was headed to victory before updated polling began to reverse the picture hours later.
The outcome indicates that Poland can be expected to take a more nationalist path under its new leader, who was backed by US President Donald Trump.
Unlike other eurosceptics in central Europe, such as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico or Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Nawrocki supports giving military aid to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s three-year-old invasion.
But he has said that, if elected, he will oppose membership in Western alliances for Ukraine, a position that seeks to chime with falling support for Ukrainians among Poles, who have hosted more than a million refugees from across the border.
His backers in the Law and Justice (PiS) party had supported fast-tracking membership in the EU and NATO for Kyiv while in power until late 2023.
Nawrocki’s critics said he was fuelling unease over Ukrainian refugees at a time when the far-right is highlighting migration, the cost of living and security. He cited his campaign slogan, Poland First.
“Let’s help others, but let’s take care of our own citizens first,” he said on social media in April.
He is likely to follow a similar path to outgoing President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally who has used his veto power to block the pro-EU government’s efforts to undo the previous PiS administration’s judicial reforms. The EU says the PiS reforms undermined the independence of the courts.
In the last two weeks, the candidates mostly fought for the support of people who voted for other candidates in the first round, in particular far-right’s Slawomir Mentzen who came third with 15% support.