POLAND: Nawrocki Sworn In as President & more – 7th Aug 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 7th of August twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Let’s kick off with internal affairs. On Wednesday, the 6th, conservative Karol Nawrocki, from the ruling Law and Justice party, officially sworn in as Poland’s new president, starting his five-year term.

In his first speech, Nawrocki said he will protect Poland’s independence, oppose deeper EU integration and switching to the euro, and stand against illegal immigration. He promised to work beyond political parties and speak for everyday people.

He also pledged to support Poland’s alliances, especially with the US, and said he wants to grow and modernize the Polish army to be the biggest NATO force in the EU. He plans to build a 300,000-strong military and create a new tech-focused department to boost defense capabilities.

Since we mentioned immigration, on Friday, the 1st, Poland decided to keep border checks with Lithuania and Germany going until the 4th of October and sent the update to the European Commission.

In September, the government will review new information from border guards, police, and the army before deciding what to do next.

Marcin Kierwiński, the Interior Minister, said the extension aims to block illegal migration coming through Lithuania and Latvia.

Poland’s border with Belarus is already well-guarded, and the barrier there stops about ninety-eight percent of illegal crossings, which pushes migrants to try other routes.

Kierwiński added that most of the pressure is on the eastern border, and that’s where Poland would focus its efforts.

In more on new policies, on Tuesday, the 5th, Andrzej Domański, the Finance and Economy Minister, announced plans for a new tax-free investment account that would let people invest up to 100,000 złoty, around 25,000 dollars, without paying capital gains tax. Anything above that would be taxed at around one percent instead of the usual nineteen percent. The goal is to help people save and invest more easily.

The account would cover things like stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds, and savings products, and people will be able to take their money out anytime with no penalties.

The plan is based on a similar system from Sweden and is expected to roll out in the second half of twenty twenty-six.

The government thinks it could bring in up to 100 billion złoty, around 27 billion dollars, in three years, though it might cost them 300 million złoty, about eighty million dollars, in tax revenue in the first year.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the 3rd, Prime Minister Tusk tweeted that Poland supports Israel in its fight against terrorism and its right to defend itself within internationally recognized borders, but doesn’t support the use of starvation or blocking aid as a tactic, especially when it leads to people going hungry and women and children dying.

Radosław Sikorski, the Foreign Minister, also said that starving children in Gaza don’t even know what Hamas is, and that Israel still has to respect international law, even in self-defense.

Soon after, Israel’s Foreign Ministry summoned Poland’s ambassador, calling Tusk’s remarks unacceptable and offensive to Holocaust victims.

Speaking of Sikorski, on Friday, the 1st, he met with his Ukrainian counterpart, Andriy Sybiha, at his home in Chobielin, north-central Poland, to reaffirm Poland’s strong support for Ukraine.

They talked about Ukraine’s security, ongoing military aid from the EU and US, and sanctions on Russia. They also discussed political and social cooperation, like addressing past issues and protecting Poland’s minority in Ukraine.

Sikorski said that Poland supports Ukraine’s goal to join the EU but stressed that the country needs to continue implementing reforms, especially to fight corruption.

He also announced that Poland is working on the 48th and 49th military aid packages for Ukraine to help boost its defense.

Sikorski was in the news again, since on Sunday, the 3rd, Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the Law and Justice Party, made some controversial comments at a rally in Zabrze, in southern Poland, about Anne Applebaum, Sikorski’s wife.

Kaczyński mocked the book Applebaum is writing called Mother Poland, implying she doesn’t fit the true Polish identity, since she’s a Polish-American journalist of Jewish descent.

His remarks were put into question as lots of people saw this as a sneaky shot at her Jewish roots, trying to stir up nationalist and antisemitic vibes.

Sikorski fired back, reminding everyone that Kaczyński used to praise Applebaum’s work but now is throwing shade while basically giving a nod to antisemites.

On the following day, on Monday, the 4th, President Duda gave an interview to private broadcaster Polsat News, where he said he’s not planning to retire after his term ends and wants to keep supporting patriotic causes.

He said he’s got plenty of energy and is open to staying involved in politics, maybe even starting a new party or movement. Duda also defended Jarosław Kaczyński after his comments about Anne Applebaum, saying they were political rather than nationalist and antisemitic.

He also thinks both the Law and Justice Party and the ultra-nationalist Confederation Party share similar conservative values, even if the Confederation is a bit more extreme. He hopes the patriotic people will stay in charge of the government and that he’s ready to step up to other roles whenever the country needs him.

In other news, on Thursday, the 31st, the Court of Human Rights ruled that Poland violated the rights of Ewa Siedlecka, a Polish journalist, when police detained her during a peaceful protest in Warsaw in June twenty seventeen. The protest aimed to block a monthly nationalist march organized by supporters of the Law and Justice party.

At the demonstrations, police held her for over two hours, saying they were just doing an ID check, which was a common excuse back then to crack down on protesters. They also denied her access to a lawyer, and she then refused to pay a fine.

The European court said those long ID checks were illegal and broke both Polish and international law. The government now has to pay Siedlecka 3,000 euros in damages.

Siedlecka said she’s glad the court called out the illegal ID checks and hopes the government stops using them to harass protesters.

Talking about the Polish police, from Monday, the 4th to Sunday, the 10th, they will raise their efforts to fight against speeding as part of a Europe-wide campaign.

They will do extensive roadside checks and even use unmarked civil cars, focusing on places like crosswalks, bike lanes, and busy intersections where speeding causes the most trouble.

Last year, speeding was the main reason for serious crashes in Poland, causing hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries.

Police told drivers to slow down and warned that they will strictly hand out fines up to 5,000 złoty, around 1,300 dollars, and penalty points to anyone caught speeding.

Next up, on Tuesday the 5th, Poland’s parliament approved changes to the wind turbine law that reduce the minimum distance between turbines and homes from 700 to 500 meters (that is, from 1,640 to 2,300 feet) and extend the electricity price freeze for households until the end of twenty twenty-five. The law also creates a fund to compensate people living near wind farms, giving them 20,000 złoty (about 5,500 dollars) each year.

However, there are doubts about whether the new president will sign the law because he’s worried that allowing wind turbines closer to homes could cause noise, lower property values, and upset local communities.

Closing this edition on a positive note, on Friday, the 1st, a Polish medical team pulled off Europe’s first remote robotic surgeries between hospitals over 350 km (about 220 miles) apart. Professor Piotr Suwalski performed a heart bypass from the city of Gdańsk, in northern Poland, on a patient in Warsaw using a high-tech surgical robot.

Later that day, Dr. Paweł Wisz from Gdańsk remotely removed a prostate from a patient in the capital as well.

Thanks to an ultra-low delay of just five milliseconds, both surgeries went smoothly and the patients are doing well.

It was a big step for telemedicine, and now Poland’s looking to expand its robotic surgery training center.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Did you know that we do lots of other updates? We’ve got non-country updates: The Arctic Ocean and Multilateral shows, and country updates, with a selection of nations from across the world.

Check the full list with the link in the show notes.

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