Karol Nawrocki’s victory in Poland’s presidential election over the weekend was yet another conservative triumph in Europe. While most Western media outlets characterized the race as a contest between a pro-European Union candidate and a radical nationalist, it was more a referendum on the left’s assault on patriotism, free speech, and traditional family values.
Nawrocki, running as an independent (although he had the support of U.S. President Donald Trump), won 50.89 percent of the vote while his rival, Rafal Trzaskowski of the Civic Platform Party, won 49.11 percent. Although the final outcome was close, the result was nonetheless a clear rebuke of the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, also of the Civic Platform Party.
Poland has a semi-presidential system that separates powers between the president and the prime minister. The president is the head of state, elected by popular vote, and holds key powers in foreign policy, defense, and appointing judges and officials, along with veto power over legislation. The prime minister serves as head of government and oversees domestic policy and day-to-day administration.
Nawrocki’s election looks to become a significant headache for Tusk as he seeks to hold his fragile governing coalition together. Tusk has already called for a confidence vote, and it is unclear if his government will survive until the end of his term in 2027.
For Polish voters, the race was a question of what Poland should be moving forward – a strong, independent state that proudly defends its traditional values, or yet another semi-vassal state controlled by the EU and Poland’s next-door neighbor, Germany. Many Poles view Germany’s dominant role in the European Union with suspicion, fearing it undermines Polish sovereignty and national interests.
Although Poland is part of the EU, many Poles have become increasingly disillusioned with EU policies that openly harm the well-being and security of Polish families. In particular, the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum, which effectively amounts to an open borders mandate, the Green Deal, and left-wing social policies have alienated Polish voters and become toxic for Polish politicians associated with them.
This is the core of what most mainstream analysis misses about the election over the weekend. While voters rejected the pro-EU candidate, they did so primarily because of that candidate’s liberal policy views. What media pundits characterize as “nationalist sentiment” is really an affirmation of conservative values – key among them a prioritization of the national interest over international commitments.
Trzaskowski struggled to address these issues multiple times, avoiding public national debates where such questions could be raised. Many Poles saw him as defending the interests of Germany and the EU more than Poland. His Civic Platform Party is closely affiliated with the EU’s European People’s Party, which is itself led by Germany’s Christian Democrats.
Nawrocki, on the other hand, promised to veto legislation that puts the EU’s interests ahead of Poland’s, and to uphold outgoing President Andrzej Duda’s border security measures. He also promised to strengthen relations with the United States – in particular with Trump.
Trzaskowski and the global media attempted to make Trump’s tariffs a major issue in the race. But Nawrocki and his supporters saw those tariffs as justified. As Feliks Leski, a miner from southern Poland and a member of the famed Solidarnosc trade union, said, “Western Europe benefited from the U.S. for decades, so it is appropriate for America to reclaim a portion of that.”
“I don’t want Poland used by Brussels to hinder American workers. I appreciate their Cold War support, including Radio Free Europe and Reagan’s sanctions,” he added, noting that Nawrocki’s outreach to the U.S. and meeting with President Trump showed he understood Polish interests.
For his resistance to liberal EU policies and support for a “Poland First” agenda modeled after Trump’s program in the United States, Nawrocki faced relentless attacks from the media and his political opponents. Professor Andrzej Nowak, a historian who supported Nawrocki, compared the recent smear campaigns to those during the darkest days of Poland’s occupation by the Soviet regime under Stalin.
“Since the era of Stalin, which I don’t remember personally but acknowledge as a historian, there has not been such a level of lies, deceit, and hypocrisy as exhibited by Donald Tusk and his team,” Professor Nowak stated. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki also alleged that funding approved by Joe Biden for the National Endowment for Democracy was used to illegally support a campaign of liberal attacks.
TVN, one of the largest private television networks in Poland, is also owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, an American company. That network, which has frequently been criticized for liberal political bias, frequently labeled Nawrocki as an “authoritarian” or even “pro-Putin,” similar to liberal media attacks on Trump in the United States. Other liberal outlets throughout the West accused Nawrocki and his supporters of racism for prioritizing strong border enforcement.
But ultimately, voters rejected these smears and chose Nawrocki to lead the country for the next five years.
Media outlets still scratching their heads over Nawrocki’s victory should listen to older Poles who still remember life under the Soviet Union – and participated in the June 4, 1989, elections that made Poland the first Eastern Bloc country to break from Soviet dominance. For these voters, especially, preserving Polish identity and traditional values was critical.
One such voter was Urszula Sikorska-Kelus, a veteran of the Solidarnosc movement that freed Poland from Soviet rule. In a moving letter, Kelus urged Poles to remember that free speech must be defended, and warned that the Polish left, backed by European liberals, aimed to increase censorship and erode their hard-won freedoms.
Nawrocki’s campaign was in many ways reminiscent of Solidarnosc, with hundreds of actions and initiatives undertaken by small groups and individuals, including small coin donations that contributed to the victory. Even when facing down the seemingly invincible giant of the liberal press and European establishment, the Polish people refused to be fooled or denied.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
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