2025 Polish Presidential Election

Presidential elections were held in Poland on . As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on . The outgoing president Andrzej Duda was ineligible for re-election. The election saw the largest number of candidates since the 1995 presidential election, with 13 candidates running for president. The second round was won by conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki who was backed by the Law and Justice (PiS) party.

The incumbent government supported candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, the Mayor of Warsaw and runner-up of the 2020 election, who came first in the first round of voting, followed by Nawrocki. The right-wing candidates, Nawrocki, Sławomir Mentzen (New Hope) and Grzegorz Braun of the Confederation of the Polish Crown overperformed polls, winning 29.5%, 14.8% and 6.3% respectively, coming in second, third and fourth. Centrist candidate Szymon Hołownia ( PL2050) received 4.99% of the vote while the left-wing candidates together secured 10.18%, with coalition candidate Magdalena Biejat ( The Left) coming below opposition Adrian Zandberg (Razem).

Nawrocki ran on a Christian nationalist and culturally conservative platform and against Donald Tusk's ruling coalition, demonstratively throwing a copy of '' Gender Queer: A Memoir'' into a paper shredder during the campaign. Nawrocki's platform called for significant government intervention in the economy, maintaining close ties between the Catholic Church in Poland and the Polish government, the broad criminalization of abortion, and opposition to the legalization of same-sex marriage or civil unions, citing the sexual ethics of the Catholic Church and protection of the family. Trzaskowski ran on economic liberalization, European integration, the broad legalization of abortion, the introduction of same sex civil unions, and a greater role for local governments in voivodeships. They differed on further strengthening relations with the European Union and Ukraine's membership in NATO, with Trzaskowski supporting both. Nawrocki opposed Ukraine's accession to NATO and strengthening of relations with the EU. Both, however, ran on pro-Western platforms.

The election result continued the trend of tighter electoral margins over the last 25 years becoming the closest in Polish history since the fall of the Polish People's Republic. Prior to the election, observers characterised a Nawrocki victory as hurting Donald Tusk's government, due to bills requiring 60% support in the Sejm in cases of a presidential veto. The results continued Law and Justice's streak of its aligned presidential candidates only losing one presidential election since its founding in 2001. The first-round results also showed a significant political strengthening of the nationalist Confederation Liberty and Independence. Exit polling indicated that younger voters were more likely to favor Nawrocki in the second round and other right-wing parties in the first; the far-right Confederation Liberty and Independence alliance had by far the best performance in its history and performed best among the youngest generation of Polish voters.

Electoral system

Presidential elections in Poland must be held on a day off work (Sunday or public holiday), between 75 and 100 days before the end of the term of the sitting president. However, they may be held earlier if the office becomes vacant due to the death, resignation, or removal of the incumbent. The Marshal of the Sejm is responsible for setting the date of presidential elections and in this case had three possible dates to choose from: 4 May, 11 May, or 18 May 2025.

The President of Poland is elected for a five-year term using the two-round system; if no candidate receives a majority of the vote in the first round, a run-off is held between the top two candidates. Presidents serve a five-year term and can be re-elected once. The second term of Andrzej Duda expires on , and the president-elect will take the oath of office on that day before the National Assembly (a joint session of the Sejm and the Senate). Exit polls found the results too close to call, official results are expected on Monday.

In order to be registered to contest the election, a candidate must be a Polish citizen, be at least 35 years old on the day of the first round of the election, and have collected at least 100,000 voters' signatures by at 16:00 ( CEST). In 2025, 13 candidates registered, the highest amount of candidates tied with 1995.

All citizens are eligible to vote following their 18th birthday, except for those that have been disenfranchised, stripped of public rights, or are detained. Voters cast votes in their regional district electoral commissions (plural ), but can also vote abroad, outside of their assigned district electoral commission, or by correspondence if they have notified the electoral commission beforehand. Voting takes place for 14 hours, between 7:00 and 21:00 (CEST).

The elections are managed by the National Electoral Commission (), which, for this election, was composed of the chairman (), deputy chairman () and seven members recommended by groups in the Sejm – two by Civic Coalition, two by Law and Justice, and one respectively by Poland 2050, the Polish People's Party, and The Left.

The National Electoral Commission, in press conferences throughout election day, reports turnout for 12:00, 17:00 (CEST) and the final turnout. For the day preceding, and day of, the election, until polls close at 21:00, election silence is in place. In the second round of the presidential election, there were 87 incidents of electoral silence being broken.

Background

Duda's second inauguration

Incumbent President Andrzej Duda ( PiS) narrowly defeated Rafał Trzaskowski ( PO) in the 2020 presidential election and was sworn in for his second term on . Duda would govern along with Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and his cabinet until the 2023 parliamentary election. The parliamentary election saw record-high turnout, with 74.4% of eligible Poles casting their vote, an increase of 12.6 percentage points since 2019.

Tusk's cabinet

Following the parliamentary election and installment of the short-lived renomination of Mateusz Morawiecki, Donald Tusk's cabinet, comprising Civic Coalition, Poland 2050, the Polish People's Party, and the New Left, began governing the country. Tusk's coalition did not have enough votes to bypass the presidential veto, for which it would need 276 votes.

Tusk cabinet economic policy

Since the coalition's rise to power, Tusk's cabinet took steps to deregulate the economy, cut welfare spending and balance the budget. In February 2025, Tusk invited billionaire Rafał Brzoska and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to deregulate the Polish economy and cut labor regulations. Tusk's proposal of Brzoska has led to media labelling him as the "Polish Elon Musk". Tusk has been accused of granting Google a monopoly over the Artificial Intelligence sector in Poland via his investment agreements with Pichai.

Tusk cabinet social policy

The ruling coalition was composed of mostly centrist or slightly right leaning parties. However, the New Left also being part of the cabinet, postulated decriminalization of abortion. The Sejm rejected the proposal in July 2024. Facing opposition within the ruling coalition of a large group of dissidents from the Polish People's Party, the vote failed with 218 votes against and 215 for decriminalization.

Tusk cabinet healthcare policy

On 4 April, the Sejm narrowly voted (213–190, with KO, PL2050 and PSL voting for – PiS, NL and Razem against – and Konfederacja mainly abstaining) to decrease the health insurance contribution () for entrepreneurs, which sparked protests from the left, especially members of Razem, accusing the government of attempting to undermine and then privatize public healthcare. Ultimately, Andrzej Duda vetoed the health contribution decrease on 6 May.

Candidate selection

Registered candidates

Withdrawn

* Stanisław Żółtek – MEP for Lesser Poland and Świętokrzyskie (2014–2019), leader of the Congress of the New Right and PolExit; withdrew to endorse Grzegorz Braun
* – withdrew to endorse Marek Woch
* Katarzyna Cichos – withdrew to endorse Marek Woch

Candidate registration

Groups of citizens willing to register a candidate in the election must establish an electoral committee () of at least members, and submit a notice to the National Electoral Commission supported with citizens' signatures. To register a candidate, an electoral committee must present to the PKW more endorsement signatures. On , the following committees and candidates have applied for registration:

Campaign

First round

Sławomir Mentzen of the Confederation alliance was the first candidate to begin an electoral campaign on , drawing criticism and accusations of illegality from politicians of other parties for its early start. Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia from the Poland 2050 party declared his candidacy on 13 November. The Civic Coalition (KO) selected its candidate in a presidential primary on 22 November after Minister of Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski challenged presumptive nominee, Mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski, who was KO's 2020 presidential candidate. Following the KO primary, Institute of National Remembrance chairman Karol Nawrocki was endorsed by the Law and Justice party on 24 November as an officially independent candidate, as he never belonged to any political party. Other groups also ran their own candidates. Parties of the left, the New Left and Razem, selected Magdalena Biejat and Adrian Zandberg respectively. On the right, the Free Republicans group endorsed Marek Jakubiak, and the Confederation of the Polish Crown ran Grzegorz Braun after splitting off from Mentzen's Confederation. Other candidates, not representing parties in parliament, also appeared: Artur Bartoszewicz (independent), Maciej Maciak (Prosperity and Peace Movement), Joanna Senyszyn ( Democratic Left Association), Krzysztof Stanowski (independent) and Marek Woch (Bezpartyjni Samorządowcy). In total, the first round of the election had 13 candidates on the ballot, the largest amount of candidates tied with the 1995 presidential election.

Speculation swiftly began on whether PiS would replace Nawrocki when it was revealed that he had contact with a future criminal as part of his time as a boxer two decades prior, for which he was attacked by opposing politicians. Polling showed, however, that the vast plurality of people did not expect Nawrocki to be replaced. Nawrocki would continue being PiS' presidential candidate going into the first round and would face further controversies about his private life.

Nawrocki accused the ruling coalition of sexualizing children, demonstratively throwing a copy of '' Gender Queer: A Memoir'' into a paper shredder. At the party conference on 2 March, Nawrocki declared the election a "referendum on rejecting Tusk", which would remain a theme throughout the campaign. On , Nawrocki was endorsed by Solidarity, Poland's largest trade union, pledging not to raise the age of retirement and to defend the minimum wage. Following the first round, on 20 May, Rural Solidarity also endorsed Nawrocki. At Nawrocki's electoral convention in Łódź on 26 April, he earned the endorsement of outgoing president Andrzej Duda, who previously refrained from issuing endorsements or supporting any of the candidates.

During the campaign, some considered Trzaskowski to have taken a "turn to the right"; Trzaskowski put forward the idea to limit welfare programs for non-working Ukrainian refugees which was proposed in the Sejm by Law and Justice on 20 January to "check" the genuinity of Trzaskowski's proposal. While being a supporter of LGBT rights, he was not outspoken about it. During the first TVP debate in Końskie, after being given an LGBT flag by Nawrocki, Trzaskowski first hid and then gave away the flag to his opponent, Magdalena Biejat. Despite being a supporter of same-sex civil unions, he spoke out against same-sex adoption.

Mentzen and Braun, who would come third and fourth in the election, campaigned along right-wing social and economic lines. Mentzen, who polled best among the youth, and eventually won the demographic, visited the largest amount of powiats out of all the other candidates. Some commentators believed Mentzen had a chance to enter the second round, and by March, Mentzen was rising in opinion polling, in some of them even slightly coming ahead of Nawrocki. However, he began declining afterwards.

In March, a controversy erupted over an abortion conducted in the 36th week of pregnancy of a fetus with a birth defect in a hospital in Oleśnica. Right-wing politicians criticized the abortion. President Duda called the act barbaric, Nawrocki called it murder and stated that the state should help children with disabilities, Braun came to notoriety regarding the incident when on 16 April, he, along with others, stormed into the hospital and constrained the gynecologist who conducted the abortion for several minutes, claiming to be doing a for which, alongside other incidents, he lost his europarliamentary immunity. On 27 March, Mentzen held an interview with candidate Krzysztof Stanowski, during which his assertion expressing unconditional opposition to abortion and describing pregnancy resulting from rape as "unpleasant" sparked significant backlash, with some commentators attributing his decline in polling by late March to this statement.

An important election issue was the matter of the health insurance contribution (), with the country's poor healthcare being amongst the most important problems. In April, the center and center-right parties in the coalition government narrowly voted to decrease the health insurance contribution for entrepreneurs, which sparked protests from the left, especially MPs from Razem, accusing the government of attempting to undermine and then privatize public healthcare. On 11 April, Razem's leader, Adrian Zandberg, missed the first TVP debate to have an audience with President Andrzej Duda about the health contribution, which he did on 6 May. Following Duda's veto of the decrease, Trzaskowski defended his party's health insurance contribution proposal, stating it would lead to increase the amount of money in the healthcare system, with Hołownia also approving of the proposal. Meanwhile, Nawrocki and Biejat disagreed, speaking of the already poor state of Poland's healthcare.

During the course of the campaign, public criticism emerged over Nawrocki's acquisition of a second apartment from an elderly man in pre-trial detention. As Nawrocki had declared to own just one apartment during a debate, Onet publicized information about him owning a second one. The candidate proceeded to declare that he had acquired the second apartment from the elderly man for pledging lifelong care in exchange, however it was revealed the man was placed in a state care facility without Nawrocki's involvement. Amid accusations of exploitation, Nawrocki defended the deal's legality and promised to donate the property to charity.

Second round

Trzaskowski and Nawrocki advanced to the second round, with Nawrocki overperforming in the polls. Hołownia and Biejat quickly endorsed Trzaskowski, and Jakubiak endorsed Nawrocki. Mentzen, who came third in the first round with 14.8% of the vote, called both advancing candidates to meet with him in a public meeting, and presented a set of eight points for each candidate to sign onto, which were signed by Nawrocki. Trzaskowski also appeared on , agreeing with four out of the eight points, but not agreeing to sign onto them, and being more assertive towards the host. Following Trzaskowski's appearance, he went out to drink with Mentzen, generating accusations of Mentzen being a traitor by Confederation figures. Trzaskowski, meanwhile, faced criticism from Left supporters, which were dissatisfied with him drinking with a far-right politician.

Shortly after the completion of the first round, both candidates announced launching rallies of support to be held in Warsaw on the same day, 25 May. Differing turnout estimates were presented, ranging between 130,000 and 160,000, including Romanian president-elect Nicușor Dan, for Trzaskowski's march and between 50,000 and 70,000 for Nawrocki's rally.

Throughout the second round, Nawrocki encountered a set of new controversies involving his personal life, beginning with the revelation that he had previously participated in a 70 vs 70 football hooligans' fight () between fans of Lechia Gdańsk and Lech Poznań. Facing criticism, he accused Prime Minister Tusk of likewise participating in football hooliganism in his youth, and called the fights "noble battles". It also came to light that Nawrocki had Chelsea F.C. and Lechia Gdańsk tattoos on his torso. Further controversies about Nawrocki's personal background emerged due to allegations of him having worked as a bodyguard for prostitutes in a five-star Grand Hotel in Sopot in his youth and using snus while on air during presidential debate, raising allegations of his heavy nicotine addiction.

Second round candidate endorsements

Debates

Several debates were organized: TVP, TVN, and Polsat declared they will jointly hold a debate of all the candidates. TV Republika announced a debate on 14 April, though Trzaskowski and Magdalena Biejat declined the invitation.

On , two debates took place in Końskie, widely described as chaotic. One was organized by TV Republika, and the Catholic Telewizja Trwam, with five candidates participating (Hołownia, Jakubiak, Nawrocki, Senyszyn, Stanowski). Another one, organized by Trzaskowski's committee and moderated by journalists of TVP, TVN and Polsat, was held at the town's sports hall once the candidates from the earlier debate joined Biejat, Maciak and Trzaskowski. The former was initiated in opposition to the latter event, which organization started spontaneously on 9 April, and which in the beginning was meant for just the two leading candidates, however other ones were also invited just shortly before its planned start.

On an official presidential debate involving all 13 candidates was hosted by the state broadcaster Telewizja Polska. During the debate, two questions were published by an employee of the broadcaster Jarosław Olechowski on Twitter prior to being asked by the host ; one at the time of their publication, the other over an hour later.

On , the first second-round debate was held between Nawrocki and Trzaskowski. The debate had thematic sections for healthcare, foreign policy, economics, welfare, security and social policy. During the debate, Nawrocki was criticized for using a nicotine pouch (snus) in the middle of the debate. Meanwhile, Trzaskowski caused controversy for calling to fact-check Nawrocki, which confirmed Nawrocki's statement.

Journalist Krzysztof Stanowski, himself a candidate, held extensive interviews with the other candidates except for Maciej Maciak, the interview with whom was ended abruptly just after a few minutes once Maciak expressed favorable views about the Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The final debate of the election, organized by Telewizja Republika, was set to take place on in the market square of Końskie. However, Trzaskowski ultimately declined the invitation and instead travelled to Kalisz to speak with voters in a one-on-one format there. Nawrocki's televised conversation with the town's residents was interrupted by Witold Zembaczyński, who drew attention to himself using a deck of cards and by running in front of the stage.

Participation

The following is a table of participating candidates in each debate:

Debata Republiki Końskie.jpg , TV Republika, wPolsce24 and TV Trwam debate on 11 April in Końskie
Debata Szymona Hołowni z Magdaleną Biejat (30 kwietnia 2025) 03.jpg , Biejat-Hołownia debate on 30 April in Gdynia

Timeline

Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia announced the election day on ; the following schedule was approved by the National Electoral Commission on :

Opinion polls

First round

Second round

Results

In the first round Trzaskowski came first with 31% of the vote, with Nawrocki coming in second with 30%, advancing to the second round. The right-wing candidates Nawrocki, Mentzen and Braun overperformed polls, received 30%, 15% and 6% respectively, finishing second, third and fourth. Hołownia and Biejat underperformed, coming fifth and seventh, the latter coming below her left-wing rival, Zandberg.

In the second round, according to an exit poll by Ipsos, Trzaskowski received 50.3% of the vote and Nawrocki 49.7%, however, the margin of 0.6% was within the margin of error. Shortly after the poll was released, Trzaskowski claimed victory giving a speech to supporters in Warsaw. A late poll, released by Ipsos at 23:00, later indicated that Nawrocki came first with 50.7% of the vote. After all votes were counted, Nawrocki's vote share ended with 10,606,877 votes (50.89%), against Trzaskowski's 10,237,286 (49.11%).

By voivodeship, abroad and ships

First round

Second round

Electorate demographics

Turnout

Overview

Increase or decrease in turnout relative to 2020.

First round

Voter turnout by voivodeships

Voter turnout in large cities (with populations over 250,000)

Voter turnout by location

Second round

Voter turnout by voivodeships

Voter turnout in large cities (with populations over 250,000)

Voter turnout by location

Conduct

In the lead-up to the election, a portion of the party subsidy was withheld from Law and Justice. The issue emerged after the National Electoral Commission ruled the party's financial report for the 2023 parliamentary campaign, and consequently its 2023 annual report, to be flawed. As a result, both the campaign dotation and the annual subsidy were reduced by approximately 11million PLN. The ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court of Poland, where the Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber decided in favour of the party. This legally bound the commission to change its verdict, which happened on . However, as the legitimacy of this particular Supreme Court chamber has been questioned by the ruling government and the Court of Justice of the European Union due to the ongoing rule of law crisis since 2017, the Minister of Finance Andrzej Domański refused to transfer the disputed funds. Ultimately, Nawrocki had to conduct his campaign without the funds transferred to PiS. Therefore, Nawrocki had to finance his campaign through a grassroot effort – around 50,000 supporters donated to his election effort.

PiS launched the "Electoral Protection Movement" (), operated primarily by former Minister of Education Przemysław Czarnek, with the intention of safeguarding the democratic conduct of the election and protecting it from electoral fraud.

Wirtualna Polska detailed allegations that Facebook campaign ads which favored Trzaskowski and attacked Nawrocki and Mentzen, had ties to a foreign company Estratos Digital GmbH, based in Vienna and headed by two Hungarians Ádám Ficsor and Viktor Szigetvári, with capital tied to the American Democratic Party. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) investigated the election and confirmed the allegations.

The OSCE-PACE report further pointed out the bias of government institutions like NASK in favor of Trzaskowski. According to the report, public media, like TVP, was also biased, and depicted Nawrocki in a negative light. The Polish National Broadcasting Council released a report accusing TVP and TVN of supporting the Trzaskowski campaign, and TV Republika of supporting Nawrocki.

There were anomalies in some voting station protocols where both candidates lost votes relative to the first round. Journalists investigating the situation have asserted that in 15 polling stations the results may have been flipped, but this wouldn't impact the result of the election as the number of votes potentially affected was well below the margin of victory for Nawrocki. On 12 June, the Supreme Court of Poland ordered a recount in 13 commissions, 0.04% of all 32,143 commissions.

Several politicians and journalists aligned with the ruling coalition partook in election denial: Roman Giertych claimed opposition committed organized electoral fraud, claiming also that Nawrocki's campaign was advantaged by a right-leaning TikTok algorithm, which helped them in the campaign. Ryszard Kalisz, Tomasz Lis, among others called for a recount of the election, and Trzaskowski's electoral chief of staff publicized a website for filing complaints about the elections.

The Supreme Court received protests against the election results, ones stating telepathic manipulation was used to discourage voting for Trzaskowski or that electoral commission personnel was agitating by wearing red corals around their necks.

Aftermath

Trzaskowski initially claimed victory after the first exit poll showed him leading, while Nawrocki said that the results were too close to call. Trzaskowski subsequently conceded after the final results showed Nawrocki winning.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk called a vote of confidence on his government, which was held on 11 June. Despite speculation of a possible breakdown of the coalition, Tusk survived after gaining the support of all 243 MPs that made up his coalition.

The Third Way alliance dissolved on 17 June, as the Polish People's Party declared it will contest the next Polish parliamentary election separately from Szymon Hołownia's Poland 2050.

See also

* 2024 Civic Coalition presidential primary
* 2025 elections in the European Union

Notes

References

External links

*

{{Candidates in the Polish presidential election, 2025

Presidential
Presidential election
Presidential election
Presidential elections in Poland