On Sunday, the main Polish opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) chose historian Karol Nawrocki as its presidential candidate for next year’s elections. This was announced on Sunday by the chairman of the conservative PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczyňski, at the party congress in the city of Krakow in the south of Poland, TASR reports based on AP and PAP reports.
Nawrocki (41) heads the Polish state Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) from 2021, which manages archives and investigates crimes committed during World War II and the communist era. Before that, he worked as the director of the World War II Museum in Gdańsk, where he was born.
They also bypassed Morawiecký
In its election, PiS bypassed experienced politicians, including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, when it chose the hitherto lesser-known Nawrocki as its candidate. AP reminds that a similar step was taken by this until recently ruling party ten years ago, when it put Andrzej Duda, the incumbent president, in the race for the presidential mandate, whose second term of office will end in August 2025 and, in accordance with the Polish constitution, he cannot run for another.
“The party has decided to field a non-partisan, independent candidate,” Kaczyński said at the party convention in Krakow. AP recalls that the head of PiS claimed in an interview a few months ago that the party’s presidential candidate must be “young, tall, impressive, handsome, have family, know English very well, or preferably two (world) languages, and be internationally oriented”.
PiS announced the name of its candidate a day after Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling centrist Civic Coalition (KO), which chose progressive Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski. Other parties will also put their candidates in the race for the presidential mandate, but according to general expectations, Nawrocki and Trzaskowski will probably fight for victory, reports AP.
Holownia is the third candidate
So far, the centrist Third Way alliance, which is a coalition partner of KO, has also announced its presidential candidate, choosing Szymon Holownia, the Speaker of the Lower House of the Parliament (Sejm). The candidate was also announced by the far-right Confederacy party; she chose her leader Slawomir Mentzen.
The date of next year’s presidential elections in Poland has not yet been officially determined, but their first round should be held on a Sunday in May. If none of the candidates receives a majority of the votes, a second round will be held two weeks later.
