WARSAW — Karol Nawrocki, a historian and novice boxer aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump, might be inaugurated as Polish president on Wednesday amid a hubbub over his soccer hooligan previous and a property deal that triggered a felony probe.
Whereas the presidency will grant the nationalist politician immunity from prosecution, that has hardly quelled the noise surrounding a collection of typically surreal scandals that bubbled to the floor within the run-up to the June 1 election, which Nawrocki gained with 50.98 p.c of the vote.
The controversies vary from his weird use of a criminal offense author alter ego to lavish reward upon himself to much more critical allegations of involvement with gangsters and prostitution at a luxurious resort on the Baltic Sea.
Former President Lech Wałęsa, a Nobel-laureate dissident who led the Solidarity motion that toppled Communist rule, mentioned he was refusing to attend the “disgraceful spectacle” of Nawrocki’s inauguration.
Right here’s a recap of probably the most contentious previous actions which are prone to canine the brand new president of Poland, a NATO heavyweight and the EU’s fifth most populous nation.
Condominium investigation
Prosecutors have launched a felony investigation into whether or not an aged man — recognized solely as Jerzy Ż — was swindled between 2012 and 2017 into transferring possession of his house within the northern metropolis of Gdańsk. The prosecutors don’t straight title Nawrocki however are probing the circumstances of his acquisition of the property.
The house probe follows three formal complaints, together with one from Gdańsk Mayor Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, who hails from the liberal and pro-EU Civic Coalition occasion of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The probe facilities on whether or not Jerzy Ż was deceived into “unfavorably” transferring possession of property value €28,000 in alternate for guarantees of “care and help in on a regular basis life.”
Fraud carries a penalty of six months to eight years in jail however Nawrocki is in no rapid hazard. As head of state, he’s answerable solely to the State Tribunal, a particular court docket for prime officers, placing him past the attain of peculiar felony courts throughout his five-year time period. After that, he might as soon as once more face authorized motion, although a lot will rely on whether or not he stands for a second time period.
Nawrocki insists he did nothing incorrect and acted solely out of fine intentions towards Jerzy Ż.
“I’ve quite a few witnesses who can attest that I provided help to Mr. Jerzy—offering him with monetary help and operating errands on his behalf. Throughout my international journeys, it was my colleagues and associates who ensured he continued to obtain my help,” Nawrocki mentioned in an interview with Wirtualna Polska, a serious information web site.
“Trying you squarely within the eye as president-elect, I can say: ‘I’ve nothing to be ashamed of,’” Nawrocki added.
The case has solely been made extra turbid by a report within the Gazeta Wyborcza every day citing Mariusz Duszyński, spokesperson for Gdańsk’s prosecutor’s workplace, that the identical Jerzy Ż was jailed in 2011 for sexual assault, simply earlier than the interval beneath investigation.
Pimping denials
Essentially the most egregious accusation — even leveled towards Nawrocki by Prime Minister Tusk — is that the incoming president was concerned in pimping at a luxurious resort at Sopot, a seashore resort on the Baltic Sea. It’s an assertion Nawrocki strenuously denies.
Tusk accused the management of the conservative nationalist Legislation and Justice (PiS) occasion, which supported Nawrocki’s presidential bid, of understanding “in regards to the connections with the gangsters, about ‘arranging for ladies’ … in regards to the house fraud and different issues nonetheless hidden.”
The story first appeared in Could on Onet, one other main information web site, which gathered testimony that Nawrocki had organized prostitutes for friends of the resort the place he was working for safety — in return for a minimize of the money for himself.
Following the Onet report, a member of parliament for Civic Coalition appeared on tv to vouch for it. “I’ve information that every one the data offered … within the Onet article is solely true,” Agnieszka Pomaska, a member of parliament for the area the place the alleged offenses passed off, advised TVN24.
Nawrocki sued Onet over the story. Nonetheless, his critics level out that he, considerably, didn’t accomplish that beneath the particular fast-track “election mode” of court docket proceedings that might have required a ultimate determination inside 48 hours for allegations made throughout a marketing campaign. Now, the case will probably take months, if not years, to resolve.
Requested by Wirtualna Polska whether or not the allegations had been false, Nawrocki mentioned: “Completely. I used to be slandered.”
“The resort hosted everybody from [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to political elites and music stars performing on the Sopot Competition. What friends do for leisure is their enterprise — I had nothing to do with it. My job was to make sure their security and safety,” he added.
Soccer hooliganism
Nawrocki admitted he took half in a brawl between hooligans from rival soccer golf equipment from Gdańsk and Poznań in 2009 when he was 26 and had simply begun work within the Institute for Nationwide Remembrance, a state company monitoring Nazi and Communist crimes towards Poles.
The struggle, which the eager pugilist Nawrocki referred to as “sparring,” had been investigated on the time, with Wirtualna Polska reporting that a few of the individuals had critical felony information.
Throughout the election marketing campaign, Nawrocki embraced his on-brand heritage as a fighter, saying he took half in “sporting, noble fights.”
“After I sparred with somebody — let me stress, all the time with prepared individuals — I by no means ran a background examine or requested for his or her felony report. It’s solely attainable that a few of them had executed dangerous issues. However that doesn’t imply their actions mirror on me in any means,” Nawrocki mentioned within the interview for Wirtualna Polska.
The president-elect conceded, nonetheless, that he overstepped by calling the brawls “noble” through the marketing campaign.
Extra flats in Gdańsk
One other allegation issues Nawrocki’s private use of flats on the Museum of the Second World Struggle in Gdańsk, a nationwide establishment, when he was its director of the between 2017 and 2021.
The case was first reported by Gazeta Wyborcza in early 2025.
“As director of the Museum of the Second World Struggle, Nawrocki stayed in a deluxe house throughout the museum’s resort advanced for half a yr—regardless of dwelling simply 5 kilometers away. The PiS-backed presidential candidate didn’t pay for the lodging and now denies any wrongdoing,” the newspaper wrote.
Following the report, the prosecutor’s workplace in Gdańsk opened an investigation in February into allegations that Nawrocki stayed within the flats freed from cost for a complete of 201 days. The probe is ongoing.
If the flats had been rented out commercially, Gazeta Wyborcza claimed, the museum would have made 120,000 złoty (€28,000).
Nawrocki denies he made the museum flats his second house, insisting he stayed there through the coronavirus quarantine and likewise used the flats for official conferences with home and international friends.
One other investigation — although not formally concentrating on Nawrocki—issues the disappearance of 8,000 albums of historic supplies from the principle exhibition of the museum. The albums went lacking from museum storage between April and June 2020, throughout Nawrocki’s tenure as director.
The present museum management believes the objects had been destroyed, leading to monetary injury of a minimum of 200,000 złoty. The investigation is ongoing.
Alter ego
Inside the realm of the odd somewhat than doubtlessly felony, a 2018 interview given to a Gdańsk department of TVP, Poland’s public broadcaster, resurfaced through the election marketing campaign.
The interview was with a Tadeusz Batyr, a author exploring the Polish underworld of the Nineteen Nineties. He heaped reward on a guide by Nawrocki.
The twist? Batyr turned out to be Nawrocki himself, his face blurred and voice distorted to guard his id from mobsters.
Nawrocki defended himself by saying: “Literary pseudonyms are nothing new in Polish journalism, literature and academia.”