Europe

256 readers
1 users here now

All about Europe

founded 3 months ago
MODERATORS
1
 
 

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/29899836

The first American academics fleeing Donald Trump's America for France have arrived.

Aix-Marseille University last week introduced eight U.S.-based researchers who were in the final stage of joining the institution's “Safe Place for Science" program, which aims to woo researchers who have experienced or fear funding cuts under the Trump administration. AMU offers the promise of a brighter future in the sun-drenched Mediterranean port city.

While both France and the European Union have launched multimillion-euro plans to woo researchers across the pond since Trump assumed the U.S. presidency in January, AMU's initiative was the first of its kind in the country — meaning the eight researchers who were welcomed are the first academic refugees planning to trade the United States for France.

2
 
 

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/29929406

Two Dutch intelligence agencies said on Friday that Russia is increasing its use of prohibited chemical weapons in Ukraine, including the World War I-era poison gas chloropicrin.

The Netherlands' military intelligence and the security service, together with the German intelligence service, found that the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Russian military had become "standardized and commonplace" in Ukraine.

According to the findings, the Russian military uses chloropicrin and riot control agent CS against sheltering Ukrainian soldiers, who are then forced out into the open and shot.

3
40
submitted 1 week ago by tfm to c/Europe
 
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/47173299

Avoid Paywall

In the Abacus poll, 46 per cent of respondents said they would support Canada becoming a member state of the EU, and 44 per cent said the Canadian government should definitely or probably look into joining it.

4
5
6
 
 

The European Union’s chief diplomat has called for all sides in the Middle East conflict to “step back” and return to negotiations after the U.S. struck key Iranian nuclear facilities on Saturday.

Kaja Kallas posted on the X platform that an Iranian nuclear capability would represent a global security threat and urged all sides not to escalate.

“I urge all sides to step back, return to the negotiating table and prevent further escalation,” she wrote, adding that EU foreign ministers will meet on Monday to discuss the latest developments.

The U.S. entered a conflict on Saturday that has raged between Israel and Iran since June 13 when Tel Aviv launched airstrikes against Iranian nuclear and military targets.

Since then, the two sides have exchanged air attacks resulting in hundreds of deaths and injuries.

Having said on Thursday he would decide within two weeks whether to enter the fray, U.S. President Donald Trump authorized a heavy assault on three Iranian nuclear development facilities on Saturday and warned of further action should Tehran retaliate.

Against the backdrop of escalating hostilities in the Middle East, Poland’s foreign ministry advised on Sunday against all travel to Israel.

Spokesman Paweł Wroński told a press conference the ministry is not a “travel agency” after Polish authorities repatriated around 200 people from Israel last week.

“It is not the case that we will always be able to help people.” he said.

7
 
 
8
 
 

Scientists in Poland have called on the public to step up efforts to combat drought, revealing that around 45% of the country’s forests and agricultural land are under threat.

The appeal was made on World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, with scientists warning that drought had now become an annual issue.

Currently, surface water resources per capita (the amount of renewable surface water available for each person in a specific location) stand at 1,600 cubic meters per year, approximately three times below the European average.

In an open letter published on their website, Poland’s national water authority, Polish Waters (Wody Polskie), wrote: “Despite Poland’s seemingly moderate climate, summer droughts have been observed since 2011.”

Financial losses stemming from drought were placed at 2.6 billion złotys in 2018 alone.

Now, Polish Waters have issued a rallying cry calling on the forestry commission, regional authorities, farmers and entrepreneurs to join forces to do their bit.

“The key is to retain water where it falls,” wrote Polish Waters. “Through water retention and wise water management, we can protect our fields, forests and cities from the effects of drought. Together we can restore balance to the landscape and take care of the future.”

Continuing, Polish Waters apportioned much of the blame on climate change, citing it as a major driver of drought.

“This process is further modulated by seasonal precipitation patterns, surface runoff, water storage, and interactions with vegetation.”

“Recent weather patterns, characterized by prolonged droughts interspersed with heavy rainfall, are further exacerbating the problem. While droughts leave land dehydrated for years, heavy rainfall washes away topsoil instead of replenishing it,” they added.

Farmers have been particularly impacted by Poland’s spate of droughts, with one report showing that 45% of the county’s forests and agricultural fields are at risk, with central Poland and Wielkopolska in west-central Poland the most vulnerable of all.

Traditionally, agricultural droughts have been viewed as a particular problem, with their effects including lower yields, poorer crop quality, higher susceptibility to diseases and pests, and higher end prices for the consumer.

To fight drought, Polish Waters has already completed 55 investments valued at 150 million złotys, among them the modernization of the Ruda reservoir near the northeastern town of Mława.

The authority has also embarked on an aggressive educational campaign aimed at promoting smaller scale retention measures, switching lawns out in favor of flowery meadows and encouraging the planting of drought-resistant plants.

“Let’s work together for the people, for nature and for future generations,” added Polish Waters.

9
 
 

Poland has been observing GPS disruptions over the Baltic Sea, Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said, adding they were “related to the actions of the Russian Federation, including sabotage actions.”

Polish media reported cases of GPS malfunction in the north of the country on Tuesday, including private drones flying away in unknown directions or losing connection.

“This may be Russia’s answer to the Baltops exercises,” Polish Vice Admiral Krzysztof Jaworski told Reuters on Tuesday, referring to NATO’s annual exercise in the Baltic Sea, being held this month.

Jaworski said the disruptions had become more intense since the start of the NATO exercise.

On Monday, a flight from Alicante in Spain to the northern Polish city of Bydgoszcz was redirected to Poznań in the west of Poland due to navigation problems, a Bydgoszcz airport spokesperson said, without identifying the airline.

“We are observing these disruptions. They are also observed over the Baltic Sea area by our allies in NATO countries - both in the Baltic states and the Nordic countries,” Kosiniak-Kamysz told journalists when asked about such incidents at a press conference about new helicopters.

“These actions are related, according to our sources, to the actions of the Russian Federation, also to sabotage actions.”

He did not elaborate on the sources.

**Rising sabotage threats **

Countries located on the Baltic Sea have reported numerous incidents since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, including power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages, and the NATO military alliance has boosted its presence in the region.

On Tuesday, Poland and the Baltic states signed a memorandum to boost the protection of critical energy infrastructure, with a special focus on shielding vulnerable underwater assets in the Baltic Sea, where a string of suspected sabotage attacks have been reported since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Last year, Estonia and Finland blamed Moscow for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region’s airspace.

Russia has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

10
11
 
 

The two parties that make up the Third Way (Trzecia Droga), which is part of Poland’s ruling coalition, have confirmed that they are splitting and will stand separately at the next elections.

The decision was confirmed in statements issued last night and this morning by the leaders of the two parties that make up the alliance: Szymon Hołownia of the centrist Poland 2050 (Polska 2050) and Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz of the centre-right Polish People’s Party (PSL).

The Third Way was formed two years ago, when PSL and Poland 2050 were in opposition. They retained their separate identities as parties but stood candidates on joint electoral lists at the October 2023 parliamentary elections, where they together won 14.4% of the vote.

That placed them third, behind the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS, 35.4%) and centrist Civic Coalition (KO, 30.7%) and ahead of The Left (Lewica, 8.6%).

After those elections, KO, the Third Way and The Left formed a new coalition government, led by KO leader Donald Tusk, that removed PiS from power after eight years in office. It has ruled the country ever since.

Kosiniak-Kamysz serves as deputy prime minister and defence minister in the government, while Hołownia is the speaker of Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament.

PSL and Poland 2050 formed separate caucuses in parliament, with each currently having 32 MPs in the 460-seat Sejm.

But they continued to stand jointly as the Third Way in subsequent elections. At the April 2024 local elections, the Third Way won 14.3% of the vote. However, at the European elections that took place two months later, its share fell to just 6.9%.

In this year’s presidential election, PSL agreed to support the candidacy of Hołownia, but he won a disappointing 5% of the vote in the first round, finishing fifth. That was significantly worse than his presidential run as an independent in 2020, when he finished third with 13.9%.

Since the most recent presidential elections, rumours have circulated that PSL and Poland 2050 might decide to separate.

The two parties have not always been natural allies, with PSL taking more conservative positions on issues such as abortion and same-sex partnerships and Poland 2050 placing stronger emphasis on climate policies than its partner.

On Tuesday evening, PSL’s leadership met to discuss the best path forward. Afterwards, before any official announcement had been made, Hołownia issued a statement saying that his party “accepts the decision of our coalition partner PSL to effectively end the Third Way project”.

He said that Poland 2050 was “determined to work constructively with our partners” going forward, but was also felt “sincere political joy at the prospect of running independently in the next elections”.

Subsequently, leading PSL figures, including party spokesman Miłosz Motyka, noted that no resolution had been formally adopted on ending the Third Way alliance. That prompted questions over whether what Hołownia had written was accurate.

However, on Wednesday, Kosiniak-Kamysz confirmed the split, telling broadcaster Radio Zet that the Third Way “is behind us, it has reached the end”.

The announcement was “supposed to be a bit different”, he added. “We had a discussion yesterday; Poland 2050 will have a discussion on 28 June. Then we were supposed to come out together and say that this stage is closed. [But] when there are 150 people in the room, it is difficult to keep everything absolutely sterile.”

After this month’s presidential election run-off was won by PiS-backed candidate Karol Nawrocki – who defeated KO deputy leader Rafał Trzaskowski – there were questions over whether and how the government would be able to rule with a hostile president and his power of veto.

PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński called for Tusk’s administration to step down and be replaced by an “apolitical technical government”. Figures from his party appealed to PSL, the most conservative element of the ruling coalition, to join them in bringing down the government.

However, at a vote of confidence in the government called by Tusk last week, he emerged triumphant, with all his coalition partners – PSL, Poland 2050 and The Left – joining KO in voting in favour.

The next elections scheduled in Poland are parliamentary ones that are due to take place in autumn 2027. If PSL and Poland 2050 stand as individual parties, they would have to win at least 5% of vote to enter parliament. If they stand as part of a coalition, the threshold is 8%.

12
 
 

The European Union has unveiled plans to legally bypass Hungary and Slovakia to ban Russian gas imports by 2027, using trade and energy laws that avoid national vetoes.

Slovakia and Hungary, which have sought to maintain close political ties with Russia, say switching to alternatives would increase energy prices. They have vowed to block sanctions on Russian energy, which require unanimous approval from all EU countries, and have opposed the ban.

The Commission based its proposed ban on EU trade and energy law to get around this, relying on support from most countries and a majority of the European Parliament.

First, imports would be banned from January 1, 2026, under any Russian pipeline gas and LNG contracts signed during the remainder of this year.

Imports under short-term Russian gas deals—those lasting less than one year—signed before June 17, 2025, would be banned from June 17 next year.

Finally, imports under existing long-term Russian contracts would be banned from January 1, 2028, effectively ending the EU's use of Russian gas by this date, the Commission said.

Hungary and Slovakia, which still import Russian gas via pipeline and have opposed the EU plans, would have until January 1, 2028, to end their imports, including those on short-term contracts.

“When the legislation is passed, all countries, of course, has to apply to it, and if they don't, then there will be legal consequences, like with any other legislation in the European Union,” Dan Jørgensen, European Commissioner for Energy and Housing said.

Russia loses market

The EU would also gradually ban liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals from providing services to Russian customers, and companies importing Russian gas would have to disclose information on their contracts to EU and national authorities.

On Monday, EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen said that the measures were designed to be legally strong enough for companies to invoke the contractual clause of “force majeure”–an unforeseeable event–to break their Russian gas contracts.

About 19% of Europe’s gas still comes from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline and LNG shipments, down from roughly 45% before 2022.

Companies, including TotalEnergies and Spain’s Naturgy, have Russian LNG contracts extending into the 2030s.

To replace Russian supplies, the EU has signaled it will expand clean energy and could import more LNG from the U.S.

Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and France import Russian LNG but have all said they fully support the ban, emphasizing that it must be sufficiently robust legally to avoid exposing companies to penalties or arbitration, EU diplomats told Reuters.

13
14
 
 

cross-posted from: https://europe.pub/post/1485943

cross-posted from: https://europe.pub/post/1485942

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/66053687

  • France's TotalEnergies, which owns a 20% stake in the Yamal LNG project in Siberia, has a supply contract with Russia's Novatek valid through 2032.

  • Belgium, Europe's second-largest Russian LNG customer, is seeking an "in-depth impact assessment" before backing the Commission's plan

15
16
 
 

cross-posted from: https://feddit.it/post/18587452

30 associations are proposing to the European Commission to impose a limit on the size of new cars, in particular the total width and bonnet.

A report connected with this request showed that the average bonnet height of newly-sold cars in Europe is increasing by 0.5 cm a year.

Many studies showed that bigger cars and higher bonnets are related to more collisions, and worse outcome for pedestrians and cyclists (and those in smaller cars), especially in regards to children

Those SUVs are kid crushers, they shouldn’ be on our roads

crossposed from: https://mastodon.uno/users/rivoluzioneurbanamobilita/statuses/114674420551539891

17
 
 

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/36511553

Archived

The chief of Germany’s foreign intelligence service warned that his agency has “concrete” evidence that Russia is planning an attack on Nato territory.

Bruno Kahl, the outgoing head of Germany’s federal intelligence service (BND), said in a rare interview that Russian leadership no longer believes Nato’s article 5 guarantee of mutual assistance will be honoured — and may seek to test it.

“We are very sure, and we have intelligence evidence to back this up, that [Russia’s full-scale invasion of] Ukraine is only one step on Russia’s path towards the west,” he told a podcast of German outlet Table Briefings.

Kahl qualified that “this doesn’t mean that we expect large tank battalions to roll from the east to the west.”

Kahl said: “We see that Nato is supposed to be tested in its mutual assistance promise. There are people in Moscow who don’t believe that Nato’s article 5 still works.”

[...]

While the war is still confined to Ukrainian territory, the German internal secret service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has warned that Moscow is increasingly extending the conflict to western countries through cyberwarfare and espionage.

Russia has in particular taken to deploying so-called low-level agents to commit acts of sabotage, according to the BfV annual report, which was presented in Berlin on Wednesday. They are believed to have been deployed to plant incendiary devices in parcels, which caused a series of fires in European logistics hubs last year.

“We have noticed that Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has led to our cyber and espionage defences being increasingly tested,” Sinan Selim, vice-president of the BfV, said.

18
 
 

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has ruled that European Union energy and climate regulations are incompatible with the Polish constitution and breach national sovereignty in determining energy policy.

The Tribunal found that EU institutions, including the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), had exceeded their competences by interpreting EU treaties in a way that significantly impacts Poland’s ability to choose its energy sources independently.

Interpretations of EU law “cannot mean that Poland loses control over the scope of its delegated competences, and thus that there are areas in which its sovereignty (here: energy) is not protected”, the court said in a statement announcing its decision.

However, the ruling is unlikely to have any real effect for now given that the current government, a coalition led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, does not recognise the TK’s legitimacy due to it containing judges unlawfully appointed by the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration.

The case was brought by a group of opposition lawmakers led by Sebastian Kaleta, a PiS MP and former deputy justice minister. The motion challenged the compatibility of EU climate rules – including Directive 2003/87/EC, which created the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) – with the Polish constitution.

The MPs argued that, although Poland had transferred some powers to Brussels, it should retain sovereignty over critical energy decisions. They claimed that mandatory participation in the EU ETS restricts economic freedom and undermines the state’s ability to ensure energy security.

They also warned that EU decision-making processes, which do not require unanimity in the European Council on issues affecting Poland’s energy mix, might breach the limits of competence conferred on the EU and undermine the primacy of the Polish constitution.

In its ruling, the TK agreed with the motion’s core arguments. It held that the CJEU had extended the interpretation of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union beyond the conferred competences, infringing on national sovereignty.

“Competences not conferred on the European Union belong to the member states themselves, and the EU can only act on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, subject to the scrutiny of national parliaments at all times,” the court said.

Consequently, the TK found this interpretation of EU law to be incompatible with the Polish constitution, emphasising that Poland cannot lose control over the scope of delegated powers, especially in such a key area as energy sovereignty.

The TK, however, discontinued proceedings relating specifically to the ETS “due to the incomplete, from a formal point of view, definition of the object under verification”.

The TK concluded its statement by stating that it was now up to the Polish legislature and executive to take “appropriate public law measures” to implement the decision, which enters into force upon its publication.

However, it is the government that is responsible for publishing TK rulings, and it refuses to do so due to given that some of the tribunal’s judges were illegitimately appointed under PiS.

The ruling could still reverberate in Polish politics, however. The PiS-aligned president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, who takes office in August, said last month that the TK’s decision on this case could be a way to lower the electricity prices by 33% – one of his campaign promises.

He also pledged to hold a referendum on withdrawing from the EU’s Green Deal – a set of policies aimed at reaching climate neutrality by 2050 – and reaffirmed his support for coal, which remains Poland’s main source of electricity generation and is also widely used for heating homes.

PiS politicians welcomed the verdict, insisting that it means that Poland does not have to implement the Green Deal.

“The EU has not been given the competence to decide without the consent of Poland which energy sources we can use and what fiscal burdens may be imposed on individual sources,” Kaleta wrote on X. “This opens the path for a radical reduction in electricity and heating prices now.”

The former justice minister in the PiS government, Zbigniew Ziobro, meanwhile, challenged Tusk, asking if he would “break the law again and hide the verdict to drive Poles into poverty” or “will you behave as you should?”

The government has so far not commented on the TK’s ruling.

19
 
 

Europe has a legal cap (0.9%) on the fee the credit card companies charge to the merchants. In the US there is no limit, so merchants get hammered with fees of ~3—5%. US credit cards often offer a 1% kickback to cardholders for using their card. Some credit cards offer as much as 5% as a kickback on certain categories of purchases, like groceries. Some credit cards also charge a zero percent markup on foreign currency exchange.

So if you use a forex-free card with rewards in Europe on a purchase that has a rebate that exceeds 1%, the merchant only absorbs 0.9% of the cost. The bank loses 4.1% on a 5% rebate.

Or am I missing something? The bank obviously still profits from purchases in categories with a lower rebate, and late fees and interest.. but of course only if you make that happen.

20
 
 
21
 
 
22
 
 

MADRID (AP) — Spain has canceled a deal for anti-tank missile systems that were to be manufactured in Madrid by a subsidiary of an Israeli company, in a bid to move away from Israeli military technology, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

23
 
 

I was startled to find this gem in EU directive 2019/1024 Art.9 ¶1:

Where possible, Member States shall facilitate the cross-linguistic search for documents, in particular by enabling metadata aggregation at Union level.

Even if you neglect the “cross-linguistic” specification, merely making public documents searchable is a huge leap of progress in the EU. And I think all member states are currently breaking that law for the most part, as we are generally forced to rely on private sector ad surveillance garbage from Google and Bing to find most public sector docs.

Sure there are a few scattered search tools for some very specific collections of documents. But most public documents are not at all indexed in any publicly administered search tool.

Of course the “cross-linguistic” specification is quite interesting because document translations are sometimes performed but the result is often not shared and even more often not searchable. E.g., for some reason a university or institution in Belgium (possibly public sector) went to the effort of creating a good English version of a big piece of the Belgian Economic Code. I was lucky to stumble into it out in the wild. Per the directive (which is hopefully transposed into national law), someone who searches for that section of Belgian economic code should get a reference to the unofficial English version along with the French and Dutch versions. But they certainly do not because the national legal statutes search site is hard-coded for just French and Dutch.

This touches on a recent question I asked. If the EU were to obtain an English version of transposed directives, in principle they should be furnishing that to the public. There’s one snag here though: the open data directive seems to exclude the EU itself from Art.9.

24
 
 

Right-wing opposition presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki has won Poland’s presidential election, official results show. With 100% of districts having reported results, Nawrocki won 50.89% of the vote against 49.11% for his centrist, government-aligned rival, Rafał Trzaskowski.

Turnout stood at 71.63%, which is a record for a Polish presidential election, beating the 68.23% seen in 1995. It is also the second-highest turnout among all post-1989 Polish elections, behind only the 74.38% at the 2023 parliamentary election.

The outcome represents a remarkable victory for Nawrocki, a political novice who had never previously stood for elected office and trailed Trzaskowski in the polls for virtually the entire campaign. It will also have a huge influence on how Poland is governed during his five-year term.

Trzaskowski, who is deputy leader of Poland’s main ruling party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), would have worked closely with the ruling coalition of PO Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

However, Nawrocki, technically an independent but whose candidacy was supported by the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, is likely to wield his veto and other presidential powers to stymie the government’s agenda, just as the current PiS-aligned incumbent Andrzej Duda has done.

Trzaskowski, a multilingual former minister for European affairs and member of the European Parliament, would also have favoured closer relations with Brussels while Nawrocki – who was endorsed by the Trump administration during the campaign – is a eurosceptic who favours strong ties with Washington.

Sunday’s run-off vote came two weeks after Trzaskowski and Nawrocki had emerged as the top two candidates among 13 who stood in the first round two weeks earlier.

The initial exit poll, published immediately as voting ended at 9 p.m., placed Trzaskowski narrowly ahead, on 50.3%. However, with a margin of error of around 2 percentage points, that poll made the result too close to call.

Updated versions of the exit poll published later on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday – which also included the first official results as they began to filter through – showed a reversal of the situation, with Nawrocki now leading on 50.7%. That led many analysts to call the win for Nawrocki.

Among the first to congratulate Nawrocki on Monday morning was Duda, whose second and final term in office ends in August this year.

“It was a difficult, sometimes painful, but incredibly courageous fight for Poland, for how the affairs of our homeland are to be conducted,” wrote Duda, who endorsed Nawrocki during the campaign. “Thank you for this heroic fight until the last minute…Thank you…for the victory! Bravo!”

Duda, who himself defeated Trzaskowski at the 2020 presidential election, also thanked the losing candidate for his “determination in the fight for the presidency…[and] willingness to take responsibility for Poland”.

Neither Nawrocki nor Trzaskowski have yet commented on the result, but the first foreign leader to issue congratulations to Nawrocki was Petr Pavel, president of the neighbouring Czech Republic.

“I believe that, under his leadership, Poland will continue to develop its democratic and pro-Western direction and that our countries will continue their mutually beneficial cooperation,” wrote Pavel.

The final election results must also be confirmed by the Supreme Court’s chamber of extraordinary review and public affairs.

However, that process is shrouded in controversy because the chamber – which was created as part of the PiS party’s judicial reforms when it was in power – is regarded as illegitimate by Tusk’s government.

An attempt by the ruling coalition to change the way that the presidential election results are validated by the Supreme Court was vetoed in March this year by Duda

Sunday’s run-off vote comes at the end of a months-long campaign that has seen the interrelated issues of security and migration at the forefront.

The war in neighbouring Ukraine has seen both candidates pledge to continue efforts to bolster Poland’s defence capabilities through expansion and modernisation of the armed forces.

Nawrocki, however, has taken a much tougher line regarding Ukraine itself, including signing a pledge not to ratify its accession to NATO if he becomes president. Tusk, as well as Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, criticised that decision, saying that it echoed Russian demands.

Both candidates have also pledged to clamp down on immigration and on the support given to immigrants already in Poland, though again Nawrocki has taken tougher positions.

Trzaskowski, meanwhile, has pledged that, if he were to become president, he would seek to sign bills liberalising the abortion law, introducing same-sex civil partnerships and undoing PiS’s judicial reforms.

Nawrocki, by contrast, holds deeply conservative views on social issues and has pledged not to sign any bills ending the current near-total ban on abortion.

During the final stages of the campaign, Nawrocki was hit by a series of scandals. It came to light that he had lied about only having one apartment. Not only did he own a second, but various questions came to light over how he had come to possess it and how he treated the elderly, disabled man living there.

Subsequently, a leading news website, Onet, reported that Nawrocki had helped procure prostitutes for guests at a luxury hotel where he worked as a security guard. Nawrocki denied the claims – based on testimony by anonymous former colleagues – and pledged to sue Onet.

Meanwhile, Trzaskowski faced questions after it emerged that hundreds of thousands of zloty had been spent on Facebook adverts supporting him and attacking Nawrocki.

The provenance of that money remains unclear, but there is a chance it came from abroad, which would be illegal under Polish election law. Trzaskowski has insisted that he and his staff had no involvement in or knowledge of the campaign.

25
 
 

Right-wing opposition presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki has won Poland’s presidential election, official results show. With 100% of districts having reported results, Nawrocki won 50.89% of the vote against 49.11% for his centrist, government-aligned rival, Rafał Trzaskowski.

Turnout stood at 71.63%, which is a record for a Polish presidential election, beating the 68.23% seen in 1995. It is also the second-highest turnout among all post-1989 Polish elections, behind only the 74.38% at the 2023 parliamentary election.

The outcome represents a remarkable victory for Nawrocki, a political novice who had never previously stood for elected office and trailed Trzaskowski in the polls for virtually the entire campaign. It will also have a huge influence on how Poland is governed during his five-year term.

Trzaskowski, who is deputy leader of Poland’s main ruling party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), would have worked closely with the ruling coalition of PO Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

However, Nawrocki, technically an independent but whose candidacy was supported by the national-conservative opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, is likely to wield his veto and other presidential powers to stymie the government’s agenda, just as the current PiS-aligned incumbent Andrzej Duda has done.

Trzaskowski, a multilingual former minister for European affairs and member of the European Parliament, would also have favoured closer relations with Brussels while Nawrocki – who was endorsed by the Trump administration during the campaign – is a eurosceptic who favours strong ties with Washington.

Sunday’s run-off vote came two weeks after Trzaskowski and Nawrocki had emerged as the top two candidates among 13 who stood in the first round two weeks earlier.

The initial exit poll, published immediately as voting ended at 9 p.m., placed Trzaskowski narrowly ahead, on 50.3%. However, with a margin of error of around 2 percentage points, that poll made the result too close to call.

Updated versions of the exit poll published later on Sunday and in the early hours of Monday – which also included the first official results as they began to filter through – showed a reversal of the situation, with Nawrocki now leading on 50.7%. That led many analysts to call the win for Nawrocki.

Among the first to congratulate Nawrocki on Monday morning was Duda, whose second and final term in office ends in August this year.

“It was a difficult, sometimes painful, but incredibly courageous fight for Poland, for how the affairs of our homeland are to be conducted,” wrote Duda, who endorsed Nawrocki during the campaign. “Thank you for this heroic fight until the last minute…Thank you…for the victory! Bravo!”

Duda, who himself defeated Trzaskowski at the 2020 presidential election, also thanked the losing candidate for his “determination in the fight for the presidency…[and] willingness to take responsibility for Poland”.

Neither Nawrocki nor Trzaskowski have yet commented on the result, but the first foreign leader to issue congratulations to Nawrocki was Petr Pavel, president of the neighbouring Czech Republic.

“I believe that, under his leadership, Poland will continue to develop its democratic and pro-Western direction and that our countries will continue their mutually beneficial cooperation,” wrote Pavel.

The final election results must also be confirmed by the Supreme Court’s chamber of extraordinary review and public affairs.

However, that process is shrouded in controversy because the chamber – which was created as part of the PiS party’s judicial reforms when it was in power – is regarded as illegitimate by Tusk’s government.

An attempt by the ruling coalition to change the way that the presidential election results are validated by the Supreme Court was vetoed in March this year by Duda

Sunday’s run-off vote comes at the end of a months-long campaign that has seen the interrelated issues of security and migration at the forefront.

The war in neighbouring Ukraine has seen both candidates pledge to continue efforts to bolster Poland’s defence capabilities through expansion and modernisation of the armed forces.

Nawrocki, however, has taken a much tougher line regarding Ukraine itself, including signing a pledge not to ratify its accession to NATO if he becomes president. Tusk, as well as Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, criticised that decision, saying that it echoed Russian demands.

Both candidates have also pledged to clamp down on immigration and on the support given to immigrants already in Poland, though again Nawrocki has taken tougher positions.

Trzaskowski, meanwhile, has pledged that, if he were to become president, he would seek to sign bills liberalising the abortion law, introducing same-sex civil partnerships and undoing PiS’s judicial reforms.

Nawrocki, by contrast, holds deeply conservative views on social issues and has pledged not to sign any bills ending the current near-total ban on abortion.

During the final stages of the campaign, Nawrocki was hit by a series of scandals. It came to light that he had lied about only having one apartment. Not only did he own a second, but various questions came to light over how he had come to possess it and how he treated the elderly, disabled man living there.

Subsequently, a leading news website, Onet, reported that Nawrocki had helped procure prostitutes for guests at a luxury hotel where he worked as a security guard. Nawrocki denied the claims – based on testimony by anonymous former colleagues – and pledged to sue Onet.

Meanwhile, Trzaskowski faced questions after it emerged that hundreds of thousands of zloty had been spent on Facebook adverts supporting him and attacking Nawrocki.

The provenance of that money remains unclear, but there is a chance it came from abroad, which would be illegal under Polish election law. Trzaskowski has insisted that he and his staff had no involvement in or knowledge of the campaign.

view more: next ›