Karol Nawrock wins Poland presidential

Conservative Karol Nawrock won the second round of Sunday presidential in Poland, with 50.89% of the votes, against 49.11% of the rival, liberal Rafal Trzaskowski, after the scrutiny of the entire votes.

The strongly disputed presidential race has kept the Poles suspended since the first round two weeks ago, anxiety that lasted through the dawn on Monday. The result reveals deep divisions in the country.

A first poll in the mouth of the ballot box released on Sunday night suggested that Trzaskowski was on his way to victory, but hours later the updated polls began to reverse the scenario.

The result indicates that Poland should follow a more nationalist path under the command of its new leader. Nawrock will succeed Andrzej Duda, a conservative whose second and last term ends on August 6.

This election is a headache for Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who since 2023 leads a government of a broad ideological spectrum-so wide that he was unable to fulfill some of the head of government’s electoral promises, such as the reform of abortion restrictive law.

Nawrocki is expected to reinforce the obstacle policy that his predecessor was already starring in Tusk, preventing him, for example, from fulfilling the promises of reversing laws that politicized the judicial system in a way that the European Union (EU) declared to be undemocratic.

It seems now impossible for Tusk to be able to fulfill these promises, which he made both the polemos and the EU.