Victory of radical-right candidate could seriously destabilise the coalition government of pro-EU prime minister Donald Tusk

The victory margin of the nationalist Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential elections may have been wafer-thin, but it marks a huge upheaval in the country’s political landscape whose impact will be felt not just in Warsaw but across the EU.

Backed by the previous ruling conservative Law & Justice (PiS) party and, openly, by Donald Trump’s Maga movement, Nawrocki, a radical-right historian, defeated his liberal rival, the capital’s mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski, by 50.89% to 49.11%.

His win means PiS retains a size-11 boot in the door of Poland’s politics that could seriously destabilise the coalition government of the centre-right prime minister, Donald Tusk, and threaten the country’s newfound place at Europe’s top table.