With an extremely narrow margin, the candidate of the far-right PiS party, Karol Nawrocki, won the second round of the Polish presidential elections yesterday (Sunday). With 50.9 percent, he defeated the liberal candidate of the pro-European Civic Platform, Rafał Trzaskowski. The presidency in Poland thus remains in the hands of the PiS party, while the government is controlled by a coalition around the Civic Platform and Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The Polish constitution provides that the president can veto laws passed by the parliament. In the past, important legislative and reform projects of the Tusk government were effectively blocked by the veto of the previous president, Andrzej Duda (PiS candidate).

The EU Commission released around 112 billion euros of frozen EU funds to Poland in February 2024. The necessary rule of law reforms have not yet been fully implemented – also due to the blockade by the PiS president.

Daniel Freund, Member of the European Parliament for the Greens, comments:

“Karol Nawrocki’s victory is bad news for the rule of law and the pro-European forces in Poland. Important rule of law reforms remain blocked. The Tusk government has so far been unable to implement key reform projects because the right-wing populist PiS, with the presidency, was able to veto them. As a result, among other things, Poland’s Supreme Court remained completely dysfunctional. This situation is likely to continue. Polish democracy is stuck in a stalemate.”

“It is now coming back to haunt the EU Commission that it hastily released all frozen EU funds to Poland after Donald Tusk won the parliamentary elections in 2023. The EU Commission must urgently correct this mistake to exert additional pressure to ensure that important rule of law reforms are also implemented. Otherwise, there is a danger that the battered rule of law in Poland will remain in the veto grip of the right-wing populist PiS party.”