From archives to the Palace. What will Poland’s president Nawrocka bring?

Signature: Karol Nawrocki received support from U.S. president Donald Trump during the presidential campaign.
Source: Wikimedia Commons. Licence — Public domain
Written by The White House

Karol Nawrocki, winner of this year's presidential election, departs from his predecessors. He's a fresh man in the political world. Until now, he has led the Museum of planet War II in Gdańsk and the Institute of National Memory, but he has not been even a private MP. Nevertheless, as a consequence of a long and fierce campaign, the First Historian of the Republic will shortly become her First Citizen. Who's Nawrocki? How did he win? What can his presidency look like?

President-elect, Karol Nawrocki, was born in Gdańsk in 1983. He graduated from advanced school there, after which he became a student of the Historical Institute of the University of Gdańsk. At his university, Nawrocki defended his bachelor's degree and then his master's degree. He continued his educational career in postgraduate studies — global MBA in Strategy, Programme and task Management. These facts make an image of the perfect youth of the future president-elect. Until now, however, we do not know how much it coincides with the actual past of the future president of Poland.

Knower of the past

In 2009-2017 he worked at the Institute of National Memory. After 5 years, he took over as a warden in 1 of the public education offices of this Institute. At the time, he led technological and educational work in the IPN branch. Since April 2017, he has held the position of manager of the planet War II Museum in his hometown of Gdańsk. In June of the same year, he became Deputy president of IPN. possibly he did not anticipate that he would be elected president of this institution a period later. This was done by way of a parliamentary vote and then with the agreement of the Polish Senate. In the Polish Parliament 248 Members and Members were in favour, while the opposition voted 198. The future president was supported by MPs of Law and Justice, the Polish People's organization and the Confederation.

It is worth mentioning that in his youth Karol Nawrocki belonged to the boxing club RKS Stoczniawiec. He besides played in the colours of the football teams Ex Siedlce and KKS Gedania, and was then a regular spectator of the matches of Lechia Gdańsk. During this time, he had contact with a group of pseudokibs, and as it turned out later, he participated in set fights between the kibols of Lechia and Lech Poznań (according to Virtual Poland's findings, they took place in 2009 and were attended by about 140 people). He personally admitted this in an interview with Sławomir Mentzen at the end of the presidential campaign.

What views can a individual from specified an environment have? The president-elect is definitely on the right, inter alia due to the support of his candidacy by the Law and the conservative approach both on political and social issues. He besides showed sympathy for current US president Donald Trump. It turned out to be bilateral erstwhile Trump accepted Nawrocki in the White home during the presidential run and then in warm words congratulated him on winning.

Karol Nawrocki opposes taxation increases and liberalisation of abortion law. – I am a Catholic and an opponent of ideological wars on the streets of Polish cities. We have people of different sensitivity in Poland and all these sensitivity for me, as a citizen candidate, are very important. The end of the Polish-Polish war on ideological matters is the thing I very much care about," Nawrocki stated. “I could not allow, as future president, abortions to be subjected to children with Down syndrome,” said the president-elect during run appearances.

The hatred campaign

Signature: President-elect Nawrocki managed to win the presidential election, although for most of the run Rafał Trzaskowski was the favorite.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Licence — Public domain

Karol Nawrocki began the presidential run with the image of an unpartisan expert, president of the Institute of National Memory, a man outside politics. From the beginning, however, it was clear that his candidacy had political background. The support for the Law and Justice was not accidental — the organization hoped to repeat the success of 2015, erstwhile a little-known Andrzej Duda moved into the Presidential Palace. Nawrocki was anointed with his newer version: uncompromised, fresh, with the possible to mobilize a conservative electorate. However, the run rapidly came off the tracks of a quiet tale of values. The candidate ‘citizen’ has adopted a clearly ideological line. In the campaign, he emphasized the defence of conventional values and the fight against the "left cultural revolution". He warned against “rewriting the past of Poland under the Western dictatorship” and declared that as president he would defend the good name of the cursed soldiers and historical policy based on the independency ethos. In a akin unambiguous way, he referred to the LGBT+ community. He publically ruled out support for partnerships, spoke of "the sexualisation of children" and "the idealology of gender". On 1 of the run scenes he demolished the cover of the comic book “Gender Queer”, which was to be, as he explained, “the defence of the Polish family”. In the area of abroad policy, he besides left no area for compromise. He openly distanced himself from Ukraine's integration into NATO and the European Union. In 1 of his speeches, he stated that "Ukrainians cannot live in Poland better than Poles", which caused controversy among any public opinion. The European Union has accused of "federalist urges", declaring its full support for "the defence of the sovereignty of the associate States".

With the radicalization of the transmission, controversy arose. "Onet" portal revealed the alleged "residential scandal" – Nawrocki was to get an flat from an older man under a contract guaranteeing life care in return, after which the elder went to the DPS. The candidate himself did not mention long to the case until under force from the media announced the transfer of the premises for social purposes. In the alleged sleek scandal, the public's attention attracted a minute from the debate on TVP on 23 May, in which he was spotted with a sachet of banned tobacco product in Poland. There have besides been reports of his work as a safety defender at the Sopot Grand Hotel, which was associated with the underworld in the 1990s, as well as contacts with the judaic community of Lechia Gdańsk and participation in statutes. Despite all charges, Karol Nawrocki prevailed. The run ended with media charges of hatred and political manipulation. To his followers he became a symbol of courage and integrity. For critics, the embodiment of deep division of Polish society and hypocrisy. 1 thing is clear. His way to the presidency will be remembered not so much due to the program, but due to issues hidden in it or heated to the limits of social tension.

President for uncertain times

Signature: A hard relation on the line Andrzej Duda – Donald Tusk can replace the open war between President-elect and Prime Minister.
Source: Wikimedia Commons. licence – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Poland. Author – KPRM

What kind of president will Karol Nawrocki be? It may seem that there will be no crucial difference between him and slow ending the second word of Andrzej Duda. But appearances can be confusing. president Duda, despite the tensions in Polish-Ukrainian relations, has always been a declared advocate of the Euro-Atlantic future of Ukraine. Nawrocki does not show akin firmness on this issue, which has clearly shown the signing of Mentzen's list of demands for veto for Ukraine's accession to NATO. Of course, Nawrocki himself emphasizes that he is simply a wanted individual in the Russian Federation, but this does not full offset the fact that he abandoned the heritage of the east politics of president Lech Kaczyński.

Also in interior politics, many commentators (though Antoni Dudek) fear that president Duda's very harsh relation with Prime Minister Donald Tuski can replace the War on the top to the degree of the chaotic 1990s. Nawrocki's opponents accuse him of wanting to paralyze the government coalition with vetos, which would lead to the dissolution of the alleged Coalition on October 15 and the setting of accelerated elections. Supporters of the president-elect emphasize that he himself, despite his undisclosed reluctance to the current power, never declared his desire to bring chaos to the state. The question of Nawrocki's relation with Jarosław Kaczyński remains an open question. Although during the election run the president-elect did not hide Kaczyński's decisive function in starting the fight for the presidency, this does not warrant his complete submission to Novogrodzka.

On June 1, we entrusted our homeland to Nawrock as head of state. We may have a different attitude toward his worldview, experience and past. For the next 5 years, however, it will be the most crucial individual in the country to be liable for the country. For this reason, we should want both the President-elect and us Poles that this word of office is simply a good time for Poland. At the same time, let us not forget to look at our representatives on our hands.

Nicole Krakovska, Olivia MAZIOPA, Oskar KMAK