Today’s swearing-in of Dr. Karol Nawrocki as President of the Republic of Poland (RP) is not only a great celebration of democracy but, above all – for all patriotic forces – a unique opportunity to rebuild an independent and strong Poland, which has been devastated for the past 18 months by the ruling 13 December coalition and its leader, the Prime Minister, who once declared (and has never withdrawn these words) that “Polishness is a kind of anomaly.” For Karol Nawrocki, who today becomes the head of our state with over a thousand years of history, the opposite is true: Polishness is normalcy, Polishness is something without which one cannot live. That is what the President believes – and so do all those who voted for him.
Karol Tadeusz Nawrocki was born on March 3, 1983, in Gdańsk. In 2003, he began his studies at the Institute of History at the University of Gdańsk, where he earned his master’s degree in 2008. In 2013, he received a PhD in humanities from the same university.
From January 2009 to 2017, he worked at the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN). Between 2013 and 2017, he served as head of the IPN Branch Office of Public Education in Gdańsk. From 2017 to 2021, he was director of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk. In June 2021, he returned to the IPN as vice president. On April 27, 2021, the IPN College recommended him for the position of president of the Institute. On May 28, 2021, he was elected by the Sejm as president of the IPN, and on July 23, 2021, the Senate approved his appointment. That same day, Karol Nawrocki took the oath before the Sejm, officially assuming the position of president of the IPN, simultaneously stepping down as director of the Museum of the Second World War.
In February 2024, Karol Nawrocki was placed on a wanted list by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in connection with a criminal investigation regarding the “destruction and damage” of monuments commemorating Soviet Army soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany on Polish soil in 1944–1945.
Alongside his work at the IPN and previously at the Museum of the Second World War, Nawrocki has long been active in other areas connected to history. On January 30, 2020, he was appointed to the Council of the Pilecki Family House Museum. In November 2020, the Sochaczew city council appointed him to the program council of the Museum of the Sochaczew Land and the Battlefield on the Bzura River. Since April 2021, he has been a member of the Council for Museums and Sites of National Remembrance. Since May 14, 2021, he has also sat on the Council of the Museum of the Cursed Soldiers in Ostrołęka. In February 2022, he was appointed to the Program Council and the Library Council of the National Institute of Rural Culture and Heritage. In June 2022, he became a member of the Council of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, a position he held until July 2024 (his departure was unsurprising, given the current disgraceful actions of the institution’s leadership). In 2023, he became a member of the Council of the Niepodległa Bureau. Nawrocki is the author or co-author of several books and numerous scholarly and popular-scientific articles on the history of the anti-communist opposition, the history of sport, and organized crime in the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL). His journalistic writings have appeared on histmag.org, in Magazyn Solidarność, and in Do Rzeczy.
In 2016, as a plenipotentiary of the IPN president, he was responsible for organizing the funeral of Danuta Siedzikówna and Feliks Selmanowicz. In 2018, he co-chaired the Civic Committee that erected the Monument to the Cursed Soldiers in Gdańsk. On August 4, 2018, he unveiled the monument alongside veterans. In 2019, he served as Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage for the organization of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II. That same year, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MSZ), he initiated and coordinated the international exhibition project Fighting and Suffering, which presented the history of Poland and Poles during WWII in more than 160 locations around the world.
In 2013, he was one of the main initiators and co-organizers of the Avenue of the Cursed Soldiers in Gdańsk. In 2015, still as head of the IPN Branch Office of Public Education, he proposed naming one of the main streets on the grounds of the former Gdańsk Shipyard after Blessed Father Jerzy Popiełuszko. He was a member of the Danuta Siedzikówna “Inka” Monument Construction Committee, which unveiled the monument in Gdańsk on August 30 of that year.
From a young age, Karol Nawrocki was involved in public service. He served as a city councilor and, in July 2024, during a convention at the “Sokół” hall in Kraków, he was announced as the civic candidate for the presidency of Poland, supported by PiS (Law and Justice). His candidacy was announced on behalf of the Civic Committee by renowned Polish historian Prof. Andrzej Nowak. The endorsement from PiS was confirmed by its president, Jarosław Kaczyński, and formalized by the decision of the party’s political council on November 30, 2024. The Civic Committee supporting his candidacy included several hundred individuals, among them recipients of the Order of the White Eagle: Andrzej Gwiazda, Joanna Duda-Gwiazda, Zofia Romaszewska, Mirosław Chojecki, Jan Krzysztof Kelus, Stanisław Gebhardt, Antoni Lenkiewicz, Jerzy Kalina, Jan Polkowski, Antoni Libera, Bronisław Wildstein, Wojciech Roszkowski, Bogusław Nizieński, Piotr Naimski, Adam Macedoński, and Ryszard Legutko. In February 2025, his candidacy was officially endorsed by the Independent Self-governing Trade Union “Solidarity” (NSZZ “Solidarność”), and in April, during a convention in Łódź, he received public support from incumbent President Andrzej Duda.
In the first round of the presidential election, Karol Nawrocki received 29.54% of the vote, totaling 5,790,804 ballots, placing him second and advancing him to the runoff against Rafał Trzaskowski.
On May 20, 2025, Nawrocki was endorsed by the Independent Self-governing Trade Union of Individual Farmers “Solidarity”. After the first round, further endorsements came from Marek Jakubiak, Paweł Kukiz, Jan Krzysztof Ardanowski, Janusz Korwin-Mikke, Wojciech Cejrowski, Przemysław Wipler, Marek Woch, Grzegorz Braun, and Artur Bartoszewicz. A joint statement of support for Nawrocki was issued by Waldemar Gasper, Bogusław Kiernicki, Paweł Milcarek, Marian Piłka, Jan Pospieszalski, Tomasz Rowiński, Marek Jurek, Jan Łopuszański, and Robert Winnicki.
In the second round of the presidential election, Karol Nawrocki was elected President of the Republic of Poland with 50.89% of the vote, which translated to 10,606,877 valid ballots. On June 11, 2025, during a ceremony at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, he received the official resolution of the National Electoral Commission (PKW) confirming the election result.