Poland's crisis in three figures: the worker-president, the liberal, and the anti-communist puppeteer

Poland is facing a deep institutional and street-level crisis, centered on a power struggle between conservative President Karol Nawrocki and pro-European Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The conflict has paralyzed the government, with Nawrocki blocking key legislation and sparking mass protests. Nawrocki, a historian and former head of the state memory institute, was elected in 2025 with support from the PiS party. Tusk, a former European Council president, has seen his government's agenda stalled by a record number of presidential vetoes on issues like migration and Ukraine policy. Behind the scenes, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the 77-year-old leader of PiS, is seen as the mastermind of the opposition. The crisis was triggered by the suspension of constitutional court judges, with Kaczynski's party mobilizing protests against the government's EU-aligned policies.