Karol Nawrocki in the context of "University of Gdańsk"

Law and Justice (Polish: Prawo i Sprawiedliwość [ˈpravɔ i ˌspravjɛˈdlivɔɕt͡ɕ] , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. The party is a member of European Conservatives and Reformists Group. Its chairman has been Jarosław Kaczyński since 18 January 2003.

It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct successor of the Centre Agreement after it split from the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS). Despite a poor showing in the 2001 parliamentary election, where it came 4th, it would later win the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections. Following this victory, PiS formed the Marcinkiewicz and Kaczyński governments. For a brief period, the governments included coalition ministers from the League of Polish Families and Self-Defence before collapsing in 2007. In the 2007 snap election, the rival Civic Platform (PO) emerged victorious and formed a coalition with the Polish People's Party. The coalition served two terms, retaining a majority in the 2011 parliamentary election. Law and Justice also lost the presidency following the death of president Lech Kaczński and many government officials in the Smolensk air disaster — acting president Bronisław Komorowski of PO would be officially elected to the presidency in 2010, winning against Jarosław Kaczyński in the second round. Law and Justice concluded its period in the opposition in 2015, where it won an upset victory in the 2015 presidential election and an outright majority of seats in the 2015 parliamentary election, retaining its majority in 2019 and the presidency in 2020. It governed the country for 8 years, forming the Szydło and Morawiecki cabinets, until losing its parliamentary majority in 2023 and returning to an opposition despite winning the largest amount of seats. The party's candidate, Karol Nawrocki, scored another upset victory in the 2025 presidential election.

Presidential elections were held in Poland on 18 May 2025. As no candidate received a majority of the vote, a second round was held on 1 June 2025. Incumbent president Andrzej Duda was ineligible for re-election to a third term. The second round was won by conservative Institute of National Remembrance director Karol Nawrocki, with 50.89% of the vote, who was backed by the Law and Justice (PiS) party. Nawrocki defeated the progressive-liberal Mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11% of the vote, nominated for the second time by the Civic Coalition (KO). It was the third consecutive victory for a candidate supported by Law and Justice in the presidential elections.

In the first round, Trzaskowski narrowly came first with 31.4% of the vote, while the right-wing candidates, Nawrocki, Sławomir Mentzen (Confederation) and Grzegorz Braun (KKP) overperformed polls, winning 29.5%, 14.8% and 6.3% respectively, coming in second, third and fourth. Other candidates of the ruling coalition underperformed and fell below expectations; the centre-right candidate Szymon Hołownia (PL2050) received 4.99% of the vote while the left-wing candidates together secured 10.2%, with coalition candidate Magdalena Biejat (The Left) coming below opposition Adrian Zandberg (Razem).