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WARSAW — Polish far-right leader Slawomir Mentzen on Monday congratulated nationalist Karol Nawrocki on winning the country's presidential election, and said his supporters expected him to prioritise Poland's interests above neighbouring Ukraine's. "Congratulations to President-elect Karol Nawrocki!" said Mentzen, urging him to remember the far-right Confederation party supporters who voted for him in Sunday's runoff. He said they expected Nawrocki to "not put Ukraine's interests on a par with ours". Confederation co-leader Mentzen, a eurosceptic who is against abortion and migration, scored nearly 15 percent of votes in round one of the election and came in third. He then took on the role of kingmaker and invited the runoff candidates to join him for separate interviews and to sign an eight-point pledge. They both appeared but only Nawrocki approved the declaration, pledging not to sign any legislation that would raise taxes, ratify Ukraine's potential NATO membership or limit free speech. "I am more critical of Ukraine" than outgoing President Andrzej Duda, Nawrocki told Mentzen at the time. Mentzen told Nawrocki on Monday: "I am really counting on you not forgetting those millions of voters who did not vote for you in the first round but did yesterday. These people wanted change." "They wanted something to finally change in Poland," he said on X. Many far-right voters had said they were dissatisfied that for years Poland has been dominated by two political groups: the ruling Civic Coalition that supported Trzaskowski and the right-wing Law and Justice party that backed Nawrocki.
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