POLAND: Presidential Elections Results & more – 22nd May 2025

Witam from BA! This is the Rorshok Poland Update from the 22nd of May twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Poland.

On Sunday, the 18th, Poland held its presidential election, but since no one got over fifty percent of the vote, the top two candidates — Rafał Trzaskowski from the Civic Platform and Karol Nawrocki from the Law and Justice party — will face off in a runoff on the 1st of June.

Trzaskowski got about thirty-one percent of all votes, while Nawrocki came close behind with twenty-nine percent. There was a sixty-seven percent turnout, including many Poles voting from abroad.

Since Magdalena Biejat from the Left Party and Szymon Hołownia from Poland twenty fifty didn’t make it to the next round, they asked their supporters to back Rafał Trzaskowski.

Meanwhile, Sławomir Mentzen from the Confederation party and Grzegorz Braun from the Confederation of the Polish Crown said they didn’t support the two finalists.

Speaking of the runoff, on Friday the 23rd, Poland’s top three TV channels—TVP, TVN, and Polsat— will host a debate between Trzaskowski and Nawrocki, and any media can broadcast it live for free.

The candidates will ask each other questions on six topics, including foreign affairs, national security, and social issues.

Nawrocki won the coin toss and will ask the first question, then they’ll take turns, with both getting a chance to share their final thoughts at the end of the debate.

In defense news, on Tuesday, the 20th, during a press conference in Brussels, after a meeting of EU defense ministers, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, the Defence Minister, said Poland plans to leave the Ottawa Convention.

The country joined the treaty in twenty twelve to support a global ban on anti-personnel landmines, which often injure civilians even after wars end.

Poland, along with the Baltic countries and Finland, decided to leave because of the increasing security concerns posed by Russia, and Belarus. Poland will officially be out six months after it lets the United Nations know about the decision.

On the same day, on Tuesday, the 20th, Kosiniak-Kamysz said that Poland would get up to thirty-three billion dollars from a new 165 billion dollars EU defense fund starting in June.

This low-interest loan will help boost Poland’s weapons industry and fund projects like the Piorun missile, the Krab howitzer, and the Borsuk fighting vehicle.

The fund was meant for joint projects with other EU countries, but Poland got approval to use it for its own national programs too because of security threats from Russia and Belarus.

The EU and the European Investment Bank will support the fund and start giving money to EU members in late twenty twenty-five to help boost Europe’s defense after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Still on defense, on Thursday, the 15th, Poland signed a big deal to buy up to 10,000 Warmate drones from WB Group, a local defense company. It’s WB Group’s biggest deal so far with the first batch scheduled for delivery in early twenty twenty-six.

Polish Warmates drones can fly for about thirty minutes and hit targets very accurately, and they’ve helped take out Russian tanks and artillery during the war in Ukraine.

Poland launched its new drone forces this year, and these drones will be its main weapon. The country aspires to become one of Europe’s top armies when it comes to strike drones. Plus, they also plan to get tiny drones for every soldier to use for scouting.

On another deal, on Monday, the 19th, Kosiniak-Kamysz met with Theo Francken, Belgium’s Defence Minister, at the Metal Works Joint Stock Company’s factory, a big Polish weapons company based in Skarżysko-Kamienna, in south-central Poland. According to the deal, Belgium will buy about 200 to 300 Piorun anti-aircraft missile systems from Poland.

They also talked about sharing military knowledge on F-35 fighter jets, which both countries use. Both leaders said they support boosting Europe’s defense and helping Ukraine.

He called the Piorun systems some of the best out there and said Belgium really values NATO and working with Poland.

Next up, this week, Poland and Ukraine made a deal to work closer together on rebuilding Ukraine after the war, improving local government, and setting up better emergency systems.

Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, Poland’s Regional Policy Minister, and Oleksiy Kuleba, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister, signed the agreement in Warsaw.

Poland will help Ukraine get ready to join the EU and share tips on how to manage EU money and build strong local governments. In return, Ukraine will share the knowledge about emergency response during war.

Ukraine also promised to support Polish businesses.

More on cross-country partnerships, as on Friday the 16th, Donald Tusk, Poland's Prime Minister, visited Albania for the 6th European Political Community Summit, meeting with leaders like Germany’s Counselor Friedrich Merz, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, and the UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The main aim was to strengthen cooperation across Europe and address topics like the war in Ukraine and energy security.

The leaders agreed that Russia’s approach in the Ukraine peace talks wasn’t acceptable and discussed new sanctions, especially targeting energy and banking. They also supported Moldova’s progress in joining the EU, and the UK’s Prime Minister talked about improving relations with the EU after Brexit.

Meanwhile, PM Tusk said that Russian hackers attacked his Civic Platform party’s websites just two days before Poland’s presidential election. He added that Polish cybersecurity teams are still dealing with the attacks, but luckily, the elections were not disrupted.

Since we mentioned cyberattacks, on Thursday, the 15th, the Impact conference took place in Poznań, in west-central Poland, focusing on cybersecurity.

Poland’s Cyberspace Defense Forces set up a booth to show people how to protect themselves online, for example, by using strong and unique passwords to keep their accounts safe.

Karol Molenda, the Commander of the Cyberspace Defense Forces, said that the military handled over 4,000 serious cyberattacks last year, and most of them came from Russia. He added it’s not full-on war with Russia yet since the attacks haven’t caused physical damage or hurt anyone, but people still need to know how to keep themselves safe.

In positive news, on Sunday, the 18th, PM Tusk announced that starting in June, people in Poland can catch a direct train to the Croatian coast.

The train will run four times a week, starting from cities like Warsaw in central-eastern Poland and Katowice in the south, and go straight to Rijeka—a port city in northern Croatia—passing through the Czech Republic, Austria, and Slovenia along the way.

Tickets will be around 200 zloty, which is about fifty dollars, and the trip will take up to twelve hours.

On Tuesday, the 20th, Poczta Polska, the country’s postal service, announced the setup of a city beehive in Lublin, in eastern Poland, along with a new service to safely ship live honey bees across the country.

The hives are made from old washing machine drums, thanks to a team working with an environmental group, and each of them can hold up to 90,000 bees. They also used recycled stuff for decorations and info boards at the site.

This project, announced on World Bee Day, helps out local beekeepers and supports bee populations, which are important for pollinating around seventy percent of the food we eat worldwide.

Wrapping up this edition with some cultural updates, on Friday the 16th, Polonia Camp, an international event for young people with Polish roots from all over the world, announced on Facebook that this year's gathering will take place at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences from the 17th to 20th of July.

The camp is for students, young professionals, activists, and entrepreneurs aged from eighteen to thirty who live abroad but feel connected to Poland.

There’ll be concerts, workshops, talks, and chances to meet others to celebrate Polish culture. Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, the head of Poland’s Senate, is supporting the event and plans to be there to help get more people interested.

To join, check out the registration link in the show notes.

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 country updates and non-county updates, including the Arctic Update, the Multilateral Update, and the Ocean Update.

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

Do zobaczenia!