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Solidarity legend Lech Wałęsa refuses to attend Karol Nawrocki’s presidential inauguration

22.07.2025 11:11
Former Polish president Lech Wałęsa on Monday called the upcoming 6 August presidential inauguration of Karol Nawrocki a “disgraceful spectacle,” and on Tuesday published a public appeal to Sejm Speaker Szymon Hołownia.
Lech Wałęsa
Lech Wałęsapaparazzza/Shutterstock

“History will not forgive you for missing this chance,” wrote the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in his message to Hołownia, the speaker of the Polish Sejm (lower house of parliament).

“You won’t have another opportunity like this in your lifetime. Make this sacrifice for the homeland... The Law and Justice party used its parliamentary majority to damage many areas of public life - they even formed a government that lasted only a month. You have the legal authority to fix this,” he added.

Kilka tekstów w ty samym temacie. Panie Marszałku takiej okazji nie będziesz Pan miał w życiu. Poświęć się Pan dla...

Opublikowany przez Lecha Wałęsę Poniedziałek, 21 lipca 2025

Wałęsa, responding to an official invitation to Nawrocki’s swearing-in as president, announced he would not attend what he again described as a “disgraceful spectacle.” In earlier statements, he called Nawrocki’s election “a humiliation and an insult to Poland.”

Odmawiam udziału w tym gorszącym dla mnie widowisku. Lech Wałęsa

Opublikowany przez Lecha Wałęsę Poniedziałek, 21 lipca 2025

Criticised in Poland for holding secret late-night talks with political opponents from the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, Speaker Szymon Hołownia has scheduled a National Assembly for 6 August 2025, during which Karol Nawrocki - backed by PiS - is expected to take the presidential oath. The decision was officially published last Saturday in Monitor Polski, the government’s official legal journal.

Wałęsa urges Hołownia to act amid legal doubts over presidential election results in Poland

Last Thursday, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar sent a letter to Speaker Hołownia, raising concerns about “irregularities and legal doubts” in the handling of electoral protests and the certification of the 2025 presidential election.


In the published letter, Bodnar outlined 12 specific concerns about procedural flaws and legal uncertainties surrounding the Supreme Court’s Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs - a body established under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, whose legitimacy is currently being challenged by the ruling Civic Coalition.

Controversy over the presidential election results recognized by the Supreme Court’s “neo-judges”

Meanwhile, Małgorzata Manowska - the First President of the Supreme Court’s Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs, which is part of a Supreme Court largely dominated by so-called “neo-judges” (judges appointed through a legally questionable process) and backed by circles linked to the right-wing PiS party - dismissed Bodnar’s claims in a recent decision dated July 21, 2025, calling them unfounded.


While acknowledging that Hołownia likely acted under the assumption of the election’s validity when convening the National Assembly to inaugurate president-elect Karol Nawrocki, Bodnar stressed that, given the significance of the presidential vote, the Speaker should be fully aware of the problems raised in connection with how the court certified the election.


Lech Wałęsa, who served as Poland’s president from 1990 to 1995, has made it clear he will not attend the ceremony. Although he was present at the 2015 inauguration of Andrzej Duda, also from PiS, he boycotted Duda’s second inauguration in 2020.

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Source: Facebook.com/lechwalesa/X/@presidentwalesa/@PK_GOV_PL/@SN_RP_