2025 Polish presidential election

Presidential elections were held in Poland on 18 May 2025. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 1 June 2025. Incumbent president Andrzej Duda was ineligible for re-election to a third term. The second round was won by conservative Institute of National Remembrance director Karol Nawrocki, with 50.89% of the vote, who was backed by the Law and Justice (PiS) party. Nawrocki defeated the progressive-liberal Mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11% of the vote, nominated for the second time by the Civic Coalition (KO). It was the third consecutive victory for a candidate supported by Law and Justice in the presidential elections.

In the first round, Trzaskowski narrowly came first with 31.4% of the vote, while the right-wing candidates, Nawrocki, Sławomir Mentzen (Confederation) and Grzegorz Braun (KKP) overperformed polls, winning 29.5%, 14.8% and 6.3% respectively, coming in second, third and fourth. Other candidates of the ruling coalition underperformed and fell below expectations; the centre-right candidate Szymon Hołownia (PL2050) received 4.99% of the vote while the left-wing candidates together secured 10.2%, with coalition candidate Magdalena Biejat (The Left) coming below opposition Adrian Zandberg (Razem).

Nawrocki ran on a nationalist and socially conservative platform, focusing his campaign against the incumbent government. Nawrocki's platform called for significant government intervention in the economy, close ties between the Catholic Church and the Polish government, opposition to the European Green Deal and economic regulations, the maintenance of Poland's restrictive abortion laws, also being in opposition to legalization of same-sex marriage or civil unions. Trzaskowski supported moderate economic liberalization, social liberalism, ecological regulations, European integration, the broad legalization of abortion, the introduction of same-sex civil unions, and a greater role for the local governments of voivodeships. They also differed on their foreign policy approach, with Trzaskowski supporting the further strengthening of relations with the European Union and approving Ukraine's membership in NATO, and Nawrocki opposing Ukraine's accession to NATO and being against the strengthening of relations with the EU, instead supporting stronger cooperation with the United States. Both, however, supported continuing military support to Ukraine.

Observers noted that a victory for Nawrocki would hurt Donald Tusk's government due the governing coalition not having votes in the Sejm to overrule a presidential veto. The election result continued the trend of tighter electoral margins over the last 25 years, becoming the closest in Polish history, and the streak of Law and Justice aligned presidential candidates winning presidential elections, losing only one out of five since its founding in 2001. The first-round results indicated a notable shift in political momentum for anti-establishment parties, with the Confederation Liberty and Independence (Mentzen), Confederation of the Polish Crown (Braun) and Razem (Zandberg) having their best results in history. Exit polls indicated that both candidates won nearly 50% of each age demographic, a change from older voters voting for the Law and Justice candidate and younger voters voting for Trzaskowski in the prior election. Anti-establishment parties gained the most of the youth vote; the far-right Sławomir Mentzen performed best among the youngest generation of Polish voters, with left-wing Adrian Zandberg coming second. The election saw the largest number of candidates since the 1995 presidential election, with 13 candidates running for president.

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. Presidential terms expire on 6 August, and the president-elect takes the oath of office on the same day before the National Assembly (a joint session of the Sejm and the Senate).

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 4 April 2025 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 Polish: okręgowe komisje wyborcze), 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 (Polish: Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza), which, for this election, was composed of the chairman (Sylwester Marciniak), deputy chairman (Wojciech Sych) 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 6 August 2020. 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 2023 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 had pledged to deregulate the economy 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", but Brzoska later abandoned the project, citing poor cooperation. Tusk has been accused of granting Google a monopoly over the Artificial Intelligence sector in Poland via his investment agreements with Pichai. In May, Tusk also promised more than one hundred laws that would help deregulate the Polish economy, but they were scrapped.

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 and progressive LGBT+-policies. 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 (Polish: składka zdrowotna) 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.

International assessment

Commenting on the assessment of the Tusk's government during the election, political scientist Gavin Rae argued that it showed misalignment with its promises from the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, and continuity with the right-wing policies of the previous government led by Law and Justice: