Poland is living through the biggest stress test of its democratic legitimacy since the end of communism in 1989.

On 1 June, the country’s presidential runoff delivered one of the tightest results in its modern history. 1/ 👇🏻 Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian backed by the nationalist Law and Justice party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), was declared the winner with 50.89 percent of the vote.

Rafał Trzaskowski went to Sławomir Mentzen looking like a petitioner. He left looking like a boss. He didn’t sign Mentzen’s 8-point plan. He didn’t even sign the four points he agreed with. What he did sign was a copy of his own book 1/

https://x.com/i/status/1926360784726040621

Then he made himself at home in Mentzen’s own pub in Toruń, sitting down for a beer with Radosław Sikorski and the man who just days earlier had been trying to position himself as the gatekeeper to the presidency.

Anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is no longer just a far-right talking point in Poland. It has become mainstream. In the 2025 presidential race, every major candidate, PiS’s Karol Nawrocki, KO’s Rafał Trzaskowski, and Konfederacja’s Sławomir Mentzen, is using it to win votes. 🧵 1/ Some frame it as a debate over social spending. Others invoke historical grievances. But the message is the same. Being tough on Ukrainians is now a political advantage in Poland. 2/

Should Poland build its own nuclear bomb? With the US behaving more like a rogue state and Russia deploying tactical nukes in Belarus, the idea is gaining traction. But is it realistic? And would the cost, diplomatic fallout, and security risks outweigh the benefits? 👇1/ A recent poll found that 52.9% of Poles support Poland acquiring nuclear weapons. Once dismissed as fantasy, the idea is gaining traction. But developing a nuclear arsenal isn't just about willpower—it requires infrastructure, expertise, and diplomatic maneuvering.

Poland wants a long-term commitment from the United States. Washington prefers to keep things casual. On Valentine’s Day, Pete Hegseth visited Warsaw, praised Poland’s loyalty, and then reminded it that nothing lasts forever. 🧵1/ Poland has invested billions in its military, bought American weapons, hosted US troops, and exceeded NATO spending targets. It has done everything possible to prove its worth. But when asked whether US forces would stay permanently, Hegseth dodged the question. 2/

Thomas Rose, Trump’s new man in Warsaw, isn’t a career diplomat. He’s a right-wing media figure, political operator, and staunch nationalist. His arrival marks a shift in US-Poland relations. What does it mean? 🧵 2/ Rose built his career attacking liberal bias in US universities, defending Israel’s hardline security policies, and pushing for a foreign policy that prioritises sovereignty over alliances. Now, he’s Washington’s top man in Warsaw.

Israel refuses to compensate the family of Polish volunteer Damian Soból, killed in an airstrike on a humanitarian convoy in Gaza. An independent investigation into the attack remains secret. 1/ On 1 April 2024, Israeli forces bombed a World Central Kitchen convoy in Deir al-Balah, Gaza. Seven people died, including Soból and citizens of Australia, the UK, and the US 2/

Auschwitz was liberated in January 1945, but for thousands of Poles, the nightmare didn’t end.

Stalin’s NKVD turned the camp into a prison, where lice-ridden mattresses, starvation, and brutality replaced the promise of freedom.

This is the story few know. 🧵 (1/) Weeks after liberation, the Soviets established three camps at Auschwitz. One held German POWs, another housed civilians—mostly Poles—and the third was infamous for its cruelty, run first by the NKVD and later by Poland’s secret police. (2/)

Did you know Poland’s earliest Christian relic is largely ignored in Poznań and overshadowed by later relics in Kraków?

The Sword of Saint Peter, tied to Mieszko I's reign, is a mystery of history.

Let’s explore this fascinating artifact. 🧵 The Sword of Saint Peter, believed to have been gifted to Poland in the 10th century by the Pope, now resides in Poznań's Archdiocesan Museum. Few know about it, yet it may be one of Poland’s most significant Christian relics.

Only two years old, they were starved, beaten, and worked to death.

KL Kinder in Łódź was Germany's only concentration camp for children. A place of unimaginable cruelty where Polish kids froze in urine-soaked clothes.

Their story is barely known, but it must be told 🧵👇 Opened on December 1, 1942, in the Polish city of Łódź, renamed Litzmannstadt by the Nazis, the camp was intended to isolate Polish children arrested for petty crimes or orphaned by war. A ‘ghetto within a ghetto,’ it became a site of unimaginable cruelty.

"Hitler stole my mum!" Dariusz Dziekan grew up calling a German woman “Granny.” Only later did he learn she was the one who raised his mum after the SS stole her from Poland and erased her identity. This is Halina’s extraordinary story 1/ During WW2, the Nazis kidnapped up to 200,000 Polish children deemed “racially suitable” and sent them to Germany. Most were raised as Germans, their identities erased. Dziekan’s mother, Halina, was one of them.

The Gutenberg Bible in Pelplin, Poland, is considered the most expensive book in the country. Despite its value, many people are unaware of its existence. 1/17 This rare and valuable book is housed in the Diocesan Museum in Pelplin, a small town in northern Poland. The museum is part of the Pelplin Abbey complex. 2/17

During WWII, the Germans released the most disturbing travel book ever published: a 1943 tourist guide to the General Government, the Nazi-controlled pseudo-state in occupied Poland. (1/20) Published by Baedeker, a prestigious travel guide publisher, the book lured German tourists to visit lands where atrocities were being committed. (2/20)