Voters speak out on the 2025 presidential election
Poland’s 2025 presidential election produced a very close result – with a narrow victory for the conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki, ahead of the liberal one, Rafał Trzaskowski. As civic emotions hardened into contempt and hostility across political lines, we decided to convene an ad-hoc online dialogue between supporters of both camps.
On 3 June, just three days after the vote, 13 voters from across Poland joined a three-hour conversation titled President Karol Nawrocki: Are You Happy or Disappointed? The dialogue was broadcast live on Facebook.
Supporters of Mr. Nawrocki spoke of relief after Sunday’s election, satisfaction at the failure of the „elite candidate”. Those who supported Mr. Trzaskowski expressed frustration, discouragement and fear for the future.
Dialogue participants were able to talk to one another, but they spoke from very different standpoints. Their moral assessments of political events and politicians diverged sharply; they used the same terms to mean different things and referred to contradictory interpretations of the same facts.
What participants did share was a sense that the country is too divided. They also voiced fatigue with the election campaign, dissatisfaction with the government’s performance, and criticism of the media for how they reported on candidates, especially the president-elect Karol Nawrocki.
See the full recording of the dialogue on YouTube (in Polish).
This ad-hoc initiative was made possible through NCF’s core funding, provided by the EFC Foundation and others.