Rafał Bochenek, spokesman for the nationalist-populist Law and Justice (PiS) party, said it would announce its pick on Sunday.
His comments appeared to suggest that historian Karol Nawrocki, the head of the state-run Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), could be chosen to run for president.
Nawrocki is more moderate and less known than controversial former education minister Przemysław Czarnek, his rival for the presidential post within Law and Justice.
Nawrocki never held a top government post during PiS’s eight years in power from 2015 to 2023, meaning he doesn't come with the same kind of baggage as Czarnek.
Law and Justice was accused by critics of eroding the rule of law, forcing judges to toe the then-ruling party’s line, fostering endemic cronyism and turning the public media into a propaganda machine. It denies the charges.
Eyeing far-right vote
The choice of Nawrocki could allow Law and Justice to avoid alienating far-right and libertarian voters who were irritated at the party’s “big state” approach while in government.
Nawrocki was head of the Museum of the Second World War in the northern city of Gdańsk between 2017 and 2021. He was seen as responsible for implementing government-sponsored changes to the facility which led to a widely publicized
political dispute.
A historian by education, Nawrocki moved to the Institute of National Remembrance in 2021. The body was set up in 1998 to investigate crimes committed in Poland from 1917 to 1990, spanning both the Nazi and Soviet eras.
He has also authored and edited several books on contemporary Polish history, according to the institute’s website.
Czarnek, meanwhile, is a controversial politician whose hardline views on the LGBT community, women’s reproductive rights and capital punishment made headlines during his time in office.
He has been a ferocious critic of what he calls “LGBT ideology,” which he claimed came “from the same roots as Nazism,” labeling adherents of such progressive views as “deviants.”
Ruling coalition to unveil candidate
The centrist Civic Coalition, the largest grouping in Poland’s coalition government, is expected to announce its presidential candidate on Saturday.
The announcement will follow primaries held on Friday to decide between Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and the liberal mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski.
Szymon Hołownia, who heads the junior coalition partner Poland 2050, and Sławomir Mentzen of the far-right opposition Confederation grouping, have already announced they will run for president.
The winner of the national election will replace President Andrzej Duda, a conservative who hails from Law and Justice. Duda, who has been in office since 2015, is in his second term and under Polish law is unable to run again.
High stakes
The presidential election, expected in May, will determine whether the governing coalition is able to rule the country effectively.
Duda has hampered the government of centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk and warned he will use his power of veto to block key reforms, including the liberalization of Poland’s strict abortion laws and changes aiming to depoliticize the judiciary.
The government fears that a new PiS-backed president would continue to obstruct its policies.
