Newly elected President of Poland
As a young man, he won a title in the amateur boxing
Updated on 02.06.2025 – 11:32 a.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The non -party Karol Nawrocki was elected as the new President of Poland. But his old contacts with the martial arts and hooligans scene cause problems for him.
Karol Nawrocki is a newcomer in Polish politics. The 42-year-old received his doctorate is independent, he has never held a political office. As a candidate for the largest opposition party, the right -wing conservative PIS, he made it to the presidency in the runoff election on Sunday: According to the provisional information from the state election commission, he received 50.89 percent of the vote. His opposite candidate, the Proeuropean Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, came to 49.11 percent.
The fact that Nawrocki is independent should appeal to the growing number of politicians in Poland. At least this was the calculation of the powerful PIS boss Jarosław Kaczyński, to whom Nawrocki owes his nomination. “The candidate for the highest state office should be a man. Young, tall, impressive, family and foreign language skills,” said the 75-year-old. Nawrocki meets these requirements.
Nawrocki is the director of the Institute for National Memory (IPN), which roughly corresponds to the now dissolved Stasi documents. At the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, he had Soviet monuments smashed nationwide and staged this in the media. That brought him to the list of enemy foreigners of the Russian Ministry of the Interior. He therefore has a permit to possession of guns, Nawrocki said recently.
Born in Gdansk, the hard guy likes to give. He grew up in the Sielce workers’ district and won a title in the amateur boxing as a young man. During his studies, he worked as a bouncer in a luxury hotel in the Baltic Sea bathroom Sopot. From this time, good contacts with the red light milieu are said.
Nawrocki stands for PIS’s policy, which Poland ruled from 2015 to 2023. The father of two children, whose wife brought her eldest son into marriage as the third child, wants to preserve traditional Polish values. He warns of the submission of skills to the EU and demands reparations from Germany to damage the Second World War. Nawrocki was already visiting US President Donald Trump, who supports him.
Most recently, Nawrocki made several negative headlines. For example, by taking over the apartment of a pensioner under dubious circumstances. According to Polish media reports, Nawrocki promised the old man to take care of him. Instead, the 80-year-old landed in an urban home.
It also recently emerged that Nawrocki took part in a battle of 140 Danzig football hooligans in 2009. Several participants were subsequently convicted. Nawrocki’s political opponents question whether a man with such a past is suitable for the highest government office. In the right and right -wing extremist camp, such escapades could even appear more attractive.
