The election victory of Mr. Nawrocki is indeed a fundamentally positive news for Hungarian conservatives, as it is widely expected to be a balancing force to PM Donald Tusk’s liberal government. President Nawrocki has already raised his voice against the widespread human rights and rule of law violations that the Tusk regime has been accused of. Polish-Hungarian relations have gone through a rough patch since the 2024 Polish national elections, something that the Orbán government is hoping to heal with the help of the Nawrocki presidency.
Fact
Karol Nawrocki was born in 1983, in Gdańsk. He graduated in 2003 from the Post-Secondary School of Business and Administration with the title of Personnel Management Specialist. He began his university studies at the Faculty of History at the University of Gdańsk, which he completed in 2008 with a master’s degree. At the same institute, he obtained a PhD in the humanities.
Nawrocki worked at the Institute of National Remembrance in the years 2009–2017. In 2017, he was appointed the director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, a job he held until 2021. He then returned to the Institute of National Remembrance, becoming its deputy president in June 2021. In July 2021, he took office as the head of the Institute of National Remembrance.
He was considered as a candidate of PiS in presidential election at least from July 2024. On 24 November 2024, Nawrocki was announced by historian Andrzej Nowak as an independent candidate supported by the party in the 2025 presidential election. He finished second in the first round held on 18 May 2025 with 29.54% of the vote, and faced Civic Platform candidate Rafał Trzaskowski in a runoff on 1 June. He won the dramatic second round with 50.9%.
Nawrocki’s campaign’s platform was described as “patriotic, pro-Christian, pro-NATO, pro-Western, and pro-Donald Trump. He was inaugurated as president of Poland on 6 August 2025, succeeding fellow conservative, Andrzej Duda.
