A staunch opponent of abortion and LGBT ideology has won the Polish presidential election, defeating an opponent who vowed to liberalize the Catholic-majority country’s abortion laws and expressed support for same-sex marriage.
Unofficial results from Poland’s National Electoral Commission show that Karol Nawrocki won the Polish presidential election Sunday, capturing 50.89% of the vote against Rafal Trzaskowski’s 49.11%, seen as a victory for European conservatives.
Nawrocki, 42, and Trzaskowski, 53, faced off in a second round of voting Sunday, two weeks after the two candidates received the most votes in the first round, which included 11 other candidates.
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Nawrocki ran with the support of the conservative Law & Justice Party, while Trzaskowski was the candidate of the liberal Civic Platform. Nawrocki made opposition to abortion and LGBT ideology a central part of his campaign.
At an event in January, he took a poster advertising the book Gender Queer and put it into a paper shredder, drawing applause from the audience. The presence of Gender Queer in school libraries has resulted in considerable pushback due to its subject matter involving teen boys having oral sex, the use of a sex toy and a trans-identified girl wearing a breast binder.
Nawrocki insisted in an interview with Polsat News in January that he is “for life from the beginning to natural death.”
“I am a Christian and a Catholic,” he stressed.
Nawrocki vowed that he would not restore the so-called “abortion compromise” that permits abortion of children with Down syndrome.
“I could not allow, as a future president, for children with Down syndrome to be subjected to abortion,” he said.
By contrast, Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, campaigned on “liberalization of abortion law and support for the in vitro program.”
The conservative advocacy organization Ordo Iuris noted that Trzaskowski condemned his opponent for his support of “this medieval abortion law” that doesn’t permit the abortion of children with Down syndrome.
On the issue of civil partnerships for same-sex couples, Nawrocki insisted that he would not sign a bill permitting them.
“As the Constitution states, marriage is between a man and a woman,” Nawrocki said. “In Poland, we have two genders.”
Trzaskowski is sympathetic to LGBT advocacy. Ordo Iuris highlighted a quote where Trzaskowski expressed a desire to become “the first mayor of Warsaw who could marry a homosexual couple” in a brochure advising voters to reject the presidential candidate.
While Poland is now governed by President Andrzej Duda of the Law & Justice Party, Donald Tusk of the Civic Coalition has served as Prime Minister since 2023.
In an X post published last summer, Tusk showcased his support for progressive political priorities by proclaiming, “We will vote to decriminalize abortion” and “We will vote to decriminalize civil partnerships as a government project, although I have not managed to convince everyone.”
Following Sunday’s election, Tusk announced his intention to hold a vote of confidence in his government, where the coalition of left-wing political parties that lead the Polish Parliament will decide whether or not they want him to stay on as prime minister in light of the presidential election results that saw the rejection of their preferred candidate.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
