The document was signed on Thursday during a live-streamed conversation on Mentzen’s YouTube channel.
Mentzen, a leading figure in the nationalist Confederation party, won 14.81 percent of the vote in the first round.
He has invited both runoff candidates, conservative Nawrocki and centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, for separate interviews and offered them the chance to endorse a list of demands designed to sway his supporters.
Trzaskowski, who is supported by the ruling Civic Coalition (KO), is scheduled to appear on Saturday.
The declaration Nawrocki signed includes a series of hardline nationalist and libertarian positions.
Among them: a refusal to approve any new taxes or raise existing ones; a commitment to protect Poland’s national currency, the zloty, and reject the euro; a vow not to sign European Union treaties that, in his view, would weaken Poland’s sovereignty; and a promise not to restrict cash transactions or free speech.
Nawrocki pledges to oppose Ukraine’s NATO bid
Nawrocki, who is backed by the populist Law and Justice party (PiS), also pledged to oppose the deployment of Polish troops to Ukraine and to reject any legislation ratifying Ukraine’s membership in NATO.
He added that, while he supports Ukraine’s place in Western civilization, he believes admitting it to NATO would amount to declaring war on Russia—in essence repeating the Kremlin's talking point aimed at weakening the West's support for Ukraine in its defense against Moscow, according to critics.
Instead, Nawrocki said Poland would send entrepreneurs to aid in Ukraine’s future reconstruction.
No to gun control, hate crime curbs
He further stated he would not approve restrictions on civilian gun ownership and revealed he himself owns a firearm.
He criticized efforts to form a “European army” and accused the European Union of trying to become a “quasi-state.”
Nawrocki, currently the head of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, also said he would never support legislation banning “constitutionally protected” speech.
He argued that Poland’s proposed hate speech law, vetoed last year by President Andrzej Duda, should be “thrown in the trash.”
The bill would have extended legal protections to cover hate crimes based on age, gender, disability and sexual orientation.
In response to questions from Mentzen, Nawrocki agreed that the previous government’s controversial “Polish Deal” tax reform was a mistake and said the EU’s Green Deal should be scrapped.
'Accepting Islamic immigrants is always wrong'
On the topic of migration, he declared that “accepting Islamic immigrants is always wrong.”
He also opposed animal welfare reforms included in PiS’s earlier “Five for Animals” bill and said that if he had been in office during the COVID-19 pandemic, he would not have supported closing churches or gyms.
A YouTube poll attached to the stream asked viewers whether Nawrocki had won their support.
Sixty-one percent responded “yes,” and thirty-nine percent “no.”
'Nawrocki has clearly lost his moral compass': interior minister
During the conversation, Mentzen referenced Nawrocki’s past as a football supporter who, according to acquaintances, once fought in a massive street brawl, an anecdote Mentzen framed as a badge of authenticity.
Nawrocki acknowledged his sporting past and said physical activity helped forge the character required to be president.
The remark sparked criticism from Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak, who wrote on X: "Ask the injured police officers if football hooligan fights are a sport… Nawrocki has clearly lost his moral compass."
The discussion also revisited allegations surrounding Nawrocki’s purchase of an apartment in his hometown of Gdańsk from a man reportedly in pre-trial detention at the time.
Mentzen questioned whether Nawrocki, then a junior official, could have afforded the PLN 120,000 (EUR 28,230, USD 31,850) price tag.
Nawrocki insisted the transaction was legal and based on mutual trust, saying: "I didn’t leave PLN 120,000 in jail, I didn’t have that kind of money at the time."
Asked whether signing Mentzen’s declaration was a capitulation, Nawrocki said many of the points were already part of his campaign platform.
Mentzen's upcoming conversation with Trzaskowski will be closely watched, as the support of Confederation’s younger, nationalist-leaning electorate could prove decisive in the June 1 runoff.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP