Karol Nawrocki, a historian and former boxer, will be Poland’s next president.
Nationalist forces in the United States and Europe had been rooting for him: Mr. Nawrocki was supported by President Trump, Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and George Simion, a right-wing politician in Romania who recently lost a presidential election.
Mr. Nawrocki was backed by Poland’s previous governing party, Law and Justice, and is hostile to Poland’s central government and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a veteran centrist.
His narrow but decisive win adds momentum to Europe’s right-wing populist movement and is likely to deepen Poland’s deep and acrimonious political divisions.
A brash political novice
Mr. Nawrocki, 42, is new to politics: He is a prominent conservative historian who once worked as a hotel security guard, as well as a boxer.
He has positioned himself as part of an unstoppable global right-wing populist movement and has tried to project a tough-guy, family-values persona. He posts often on social media about his young family and his Catholic faith and has also shared images of himself in the gym, boxing and firing guns.
His wife, Marta Nawrocka, is a civil servant. She has been a visible part of his campaign, as have their children: Daniel, Antoni and Katarzyna.
Mr. Nawrocki has acknowledged taking part in brawls between soccer hooligans in his younger days, but has sought to present those activities in a positive light.
“All my sports activities were based on the strength of my heart, the strength of my muscles, my fists,” he said, according to Reuters.
A conservative historian
Mr. Nawrocki is the president of the Institute of National Remembrance, which researches modern Polish history and investigates crimes from the Nazi occupation and the Communist period, among others.
Under his tenure, the institute oversaw the removal of Soviet-era monuments in Poland after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Before our eyes, history has become a living experience,” he said, according to The Associated Press, adding, “There is no place in the Polish public space for any commemoration of the totalitarian communist regime and its people.”
Mr. Nawrocki has a Ph.D. in humanities and previously led the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk, where he was born. He reformatted the Gdansk museum to focus on Polish suffering during the war and has been criticized for downplaying the Holocaust, which mostly took place in Nazi camps in occupied Poland. He has written or edited seven books.
Support for Ukraine
Mr. Nawrocki wants to strengthen Poland’s military, which already has the European Union’s largest army.
He also wants to keep providing Ukraine with weapons for use against Russia. But he was less enthusiastic than other candidates about helping Ukrainian refugees.
The war in Ukraine is the most important security issue in Poland, which shares borders with Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Polish politicians across the political spectrum support giving military aid to Ukraine.
Deeper divides in Poland
Mr. Nawrocki won Poland’s runoff election by a slim margin, capturing 50.9 percent of the vote. He beat Rafal Trzaskowski, the liberal mayor of Warsaw.
His victory will leave Poland severely divided between his presidency and the government. As president, Mr. Nawrocki will have no say in setting policy. But he can veto legislation, a power that his predecessor, Andrzej Duda, repeatedly used to block Mr. Tusk’s agenda.
Mr. Nawrocki has been hostile to Poland’s central government, and the expectation is that he will continue to stymie Mr. Tusk.
Mr. Tusk, who has strong ties to the European Union, has been highly critical of the man who will now lead Poland with him, calling Mr. Nawrocki a “gangster” unfit for the presidency.
Amelia Nierenberg is a breaking news reporter for The Times in London, covering international news.
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