POLAND: Poland’s EU Presidency Ends & more – 3rd July 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 3rd of July twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

Kicking off this edition with domestic affairs, on Tuesday, the 1st, Poland’s Supreme Court confirmed that the 1st of June presidential election was valid and officially named Karol Nawrocki the winner, even though people filed nearly 55,000 complaints.

The court found only twenty-one of the complaints at least partly fair, but they didn’t change the result.

Nawrocki, from the Law and Justice party, won with just over fifty percent of the vote, narrowly beating Rafał Trzaskowski, Warsaw’s mayor, who got over forty-nine percent.

Nawrocki will step in on the 6th of August, taking over from the current President Duda.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the 30th, Poland finished its six-month term leading the EU Council, focusing on security issues amid the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.

While in charge, Polish leaders worked to stop illegal migration, improve civil protection, and fight crimes like human trafficking and arms smuggling.

Tomasz Siemoniak, the Interior Minister, said Russia and Belarus are using migrants on Poland’s eastern borders as a form of hybrid warfare, and in response, the EU gave Poland fifty-six million dollars last December to help secure those borders, with civil defense becoming a bigger priority for the EU as well.

On the same day, Donald Tusk, the Prime Minister, met with Poland’s top security officials, who said the border situation is still tense with ongoing illegal crossings and threats from neighbors.

Still on security, on Tuesday, the 1st, PM Tusk said Poland will bring back temporary border checks with Germany and Lithuania starting the 7th of July, which Poland had taken down in two thousand seven to follow the EU’s Schengen rules. The checks will also include patrols and monitoring of forests and small roads along the Lithuanian border, with help from the Territorial Defence Force.

Germany brought back its own border checks in October twenty twenty-three to stop illegal migration and refused to take back migrants who crossed into Poland from the German border.

Duda criticized opposition politicians and activists who’ve been patrolling the border by themselves, saying that stopping cars and checking migrants without permission interferes with official work and can be dangerous.

Since April, Operation Bridge, Poland’s official border security team, has caught about 2,000 individuals, including illegal immigrants and smugglers.

In other news, on Sunday, the 29th, its head, Jarosław Kaczyński, the head of the Law and Justice Party, said that his party will modernize and push for constitutional changes to win back the majority in parliament in the twenty twenty-seven elections at a party event in Przysucha, in south-central Poland. He added that the country needs a new constitution to better protect democracy and the rule of law.

He also talked about building a more tech-based system to bring in new members, adding that it’s time to encourage more cooperation between different political groups. He also backed private business but said some state control is still needed to protect national interests.

What’s more, Kaczyński blamed Law and Justice’s twenty twenty-three loss on challenges like COVID, inflation, and controversies like misuse of public funds, and issues with media independence.

Following that, on Monday, the 30th, President Duda attended the UN’s Financing for Development conference in Seville, Spain, focused on helping poorer countries tackle their biggest challenges.

Speaking at the conference, he said the world is at a real turning point and urged countries to unite around goals like sustainable growth, fairness, and ending poverty.

Duda added that the poorest countries are the hardest hit by climate change, even though they’re the least responsible. He warned that the gap between rich and poor nations is growing, with education and healthcare still mainly for the wealthy, and stressed that ongoing wars make it crucial for countries to work together.

He also said that funding development is key to building fair societies and highlighted that Poland is stepping up to help by sending more money and resources to poorer countries.

Talking about Duda, on Saturday, the 28th, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, surprised him with the Order of Freedom—Ukraine’s highest award for someone from another country. Duda made a surprise visit to Kyiv that day, joining Constitution Day celebrations and meeting with Zelenskyy.

The award was to thank him for standing by Ukraine, supporting its independence, and helping build strong ties between the two countries.

Duda has backed Ukraine since the war with Russia began in twenty twenty-two and has visited several times, including on Ukraine’s Independence Day in August twenty twenty-four.

On news from another meeting, on Thursday, the 3rd, President Duda met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican. This was their second meeting since the pope was elected in May.

They talked about the war in Ukraine, with the Pope even offering to help mediate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. They also discussed Europe’s overall security and the need for cooperation to maintain stability. Duda said that Poland has had a strong spiritual connection with the Vatican for over a thousand years and wants to keep building on that.

After their private chat, Duda also met with the Vatican’s top official, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and laid a wreath at the tomb of St. John Paul II, the famous Polish pope.

Let’s get back to the end of Poland’s EU presidency for a minute, as on Tuesday, the 1st, it wrapped it up with a big event at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan.

Polish officials like Dorota Niedziela, the Deputy Speaker, and Jerzy Owsiak, founder of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, took part in the event, which focused on broad security issues like health and mental well-being, and showcased Polish culture and community projects.

Remember that last week we talked about Poland going into space? Well, on Wednesday, the 2nd, PM Tusk and other Polish officials had a live video chat with Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, the Polish astronaut on the International Space Station.

Tusk called him a national hero and said that the mission is the beginning of a bright future for Poland in space research. Other officials, including the deputy prime minister and the head of the Polish Space Agency, also joined the call.

Earlier that day, the astronaut spoke with 300 students in Łódź, central Poland, answered their questions, and performed science experiments demonstrating how water and different forces behave in microgravity.

The Polish Space Agency also gave the students a special telegraph key to encourage their continued interest in space.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the 27th, Police launched a manhunt for fifty-seven-year-old Tadeusz Duda, who’s wanted for killing his mother-in-law, daughter, and son-in-law, and seriously hurting another family member in Limanowa County, in southern Poland.

He had domestic abuse charges and a restraining order against contacting the family members he later attacked. Police think he planned the whole thing and they’re offering about 13,000 dollars for any information that helps catch him. They’ve warned that anyone helping him could go to jail.

The manhunt is huge, with special forces, firefighters, border guards, and the army participating. They are using dogs, helicopters, drones, and thermal cameras to catch the criminal.

The police found his car abandoned near a forest and told people to stay out of the woods because anyone there might get mistaken for him.

And to close this edition, the vacation season continues, and on Tuesday, the 1st, the Polish police announced that starting in early July and going until the 29th of August, sixteen officers will help out in popular tourist spots along the coasts of Croatia and Bulgaria.

They’ll support Polish tourists, work with local police, and stay in touch with consulates. Their main job is to help keep people safe, sharing tips about things like water sports, snorkeling, and fire safety, and running information points with useful information.

It’s part of an ongoing partnership between the Polish police and their international counterparts.

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

Would you like to join the Rorshok team as the Ocean Update writer?

Just send us an email at info@rorshok.com with “Ocean Writer Position” in the subject, and tell us why you would like to write these updates!

Click on the link in the show notes to check out the job description.

Do zobaczenia!