In his farewell TV address last night, outgoing president Duda trumpeted his successes as the country’s president, saying he fought against the impossibilism of political rivals and at the end of his 10 years in office leaves Poland as “a completely different country: stronger, safer, taken more seriously abroad, and serving its citizens better.”
But he also leaves behind a deeply divisive legacy.
Boasting some achievements in foreign and defence policy by strengthening Poland’s role within Nato, maintaining a strong alliance with the US under Trump, and playing a critical role in helping Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in 2022, he repeatedly sparked major controversy at home by closely aligning himself with his party, the populist-right Law and Justice, including on the much-criticised reforms of the judiciary that sparked a rule of law crisis in relations with the EU.
Despite that, Duda came top in last month’s trust ratings by CBOS, ahead of his successor Karol Nawrocki, with a separate poll showing that 54% viewed his presidency positively and 40% negatively. He is only the second Polish president after 1989 to complete two terms in office.
At just 53, Duda is still believed to be harbouring political ambitions, with speculations about his future further fuelled by his declaration that he has no intention to retire from frontline politics.
He is seen as a potential candidate to be the country’s next prime minister leading a hypothetical coalition of the populist-right PiS and libertarian far-right Konfederacja after the 2027 parliamentary election.
In his book, published today to coincide with the last day in the office, he repeatedly criticised Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk and pointedly praised Konfederacja’s leader Sławomir Mentzen as “a patriot and a statesman – and that is impressive,” which will only fuel rumours about his future intentions.
Over in Poland, the inauguration ceremony of the country’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, will start in just under an hour at 10am local time (9am London).
42-year-old Nawrocki narrowly won the presidential election in June, defying the polls and beating the Oxford-educated liberal Warsaw mayor Rafał Trzaskowski who was widely regarded as the clear favourite to replace the conservative incumbent Andrzej Duda stepping down after two terms.
A historian with a controversial past, he has little experience in frontline politics after serving as the head of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, a state research institute with public prosecution powers investigating historical crimes against Poland.
Backed by the populist-right opposition Law and Justice party which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, Nawrocki ran a campaign under Trumpesque slogan “Poland first, Poles first.” He also secured Donald Trump’s endorsement after an unexpected White House visit just weeks before the decisive vote.
Marek Magierowski, former aide to the outgoing president Duda and Poland’s former US ambassador, said in a blog post that Nawrocki’s links with the US could “help keep both countries aligned in the contest against Russia”.
Domestically, however, Nawrocki’s presidency is likely to pose a major challenge for Poland’s pro-European coalition government run by former European Council president Donald Tusk.
While the role of the Polish president is largely ceremonial, it carries some influence over foreign and defence policy and a critical power to veto new legislation. This can only be overturned with a majority of three-fifths in parliament, which the current government does not have.
Nawrocki is expected to play an active role in domestic politics to directly challenge growingly unpopular Tusk, with the incoming president’s aides saying he will put forward his first legislative proposals already later this week.
Aleks Szczerbiak, an expert on east and central European politics at the University of Sussex, said in his blog that Nawrocki’s win “represents a huge blow to the Tusk government’s plans to re-set its reform agenda.”
“The government can now expect continued resistance from a hostile President for the remainder of its term until the next parliamentary election, scheduled for autumn 2027, making it very hard for it to push forward with its policy agenda,” he wrote in a recent analysis.
Nawrocki’s presidency could also mark a shift in Poland’s position on Ukraine, as he previously repeatedly spoke about the difficult history between the two nations and declared his opposition to Ukrainian membership in Nato.
He will deliver his inaugural address as part of the swearing in ceremony, and I will bring you all the key lines.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived to Moscow for talks with Russia, possibly with the country’s president Vladimir Putin, ahead of this Friday’s deadline set by Donald Trump for ending the war in Ukraine.
After landing, Witkoff was met by presidential special representative Kirill Dmitriev, but the Kremlin previously had said that a direct meeting between the US envoy and Putin was “possible.”
Trump said last night that the outcome of the talks would inform his next steps and whether he moves ahead with the proposed sanctions and secondary tariffs against Russia and its trading partners, including India.
“We’re going to see what happens,” he told reporters. “We’ll make that determination at that time.”
Elsewhere, nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki will be inaugurated as the next president of Poland, marking the beginning of a new, likely turbulent, chapter for the country’s pro-European government led by former European Council president Donald Tusk.
I will bring you all the key updates here.
It’s Wednesday, 6 August 2025, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.
Good morning.
