Catholic historian ekes out presidential win in Poland

Conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki won the country’s presidential election over the weekend, garnering slightly over half of the vote. Liberal challenger Rafał Trzaskowski barely lost the race, with just under 50% of votes. Nawrocki ran unaffiliated from any political party but received support from the right-leaning Law and Justice party, while the centrist Civil Platform backed Trzaskowski’s run.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration also supported Nawrocki’s independent run against the centralist Mayor of Warsaw. Trump welcomed Nawrocki to the Oval Office and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem later endorsed him at a Conservative Political Action Conference event in Poland.

Who is Nawrocki? The new Polish leader is known as a historian, a devout Catholic, and a former boxer. The 42-year-old campaigned as a working-class candidate opposed to mass immigration with an anti-globalization platform.

How are people reacting to the power shift? Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Monday described Nawrocki’s win as a patriotic victory. The win offers a new chance to restore foundational Hungarian-Polish relations, which the Polish government previously severed, he said. If Andrej Babiš can win in the Czech Republic’s September election, the Visegrad alliance of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia can once again become one of the European Union's most effective internal networks, Szijjártó added.

The EU Commission congratulated Nawrocki on the win and looked forward to working with the new president, the commission’s chief spokeswoman Paula Pinho said Monday, accoring to Reuters. EU leaders remained confident that the reforms started by the Polish government will continue, she added. German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius also reaffirmed the strength of Poland’s relationship with Berlin on Monday. Germany looked forward to positive and intensive cooperation with Nawrocki, he added.