Nawrocki rejects 'chandelier guard' label, vows active second year in Skawina speech

First trip beyond Warsaw

On Sunday, 9 August 2026, President Karol Nawrocki held his first meeting with citizens outside Warsaw since being sworn in one year earlier, addressing residents in the town of Skawina near Krakow. The visit came three days after the first anniversary of his inauguration, which was marked on Thursday, 6 August, with a celebration outside the Presidential Palace. Nawrocki told the crowd gathered in Skawina's market square that his second year would follow the same pattern of travel and direct contact with citizens, regardless of media scrutiny over who funds the meetings.

Today in Skawina is my first meeting with Poles outside Warsaw, after a year since being sworn in. From here, from Skawina, the message goes out across all of Poland that the second year of the presidency will be exactly the same. I will travel across Poland, meet with Poles.

Rejecting the 'chandelier guard'

Nawrocki explicitly rejected the ironic description of the presidency as "guarding the chandelier," a phrase critics previously applied to President Bronisław Komorowski during his 2010-2015 term. He insisted the president must meet citizens regularly and that questions about who pays for the meetings would change nothing. He thanked Skawina residents for their support, noting he won in the first round of the presidential election there and in the surrounding Krakow county. He described the campaign as "hard" and "brutal" and thanked voters for not losing faith in his candidacy.

The president is for Poles. He must and will meet with them. And chandeliers and guarding chandeliers is not for me.

Plan 21 and legislative record

Nawrocki referenced his campaign "Plan 21," a 21-point program built on four pillars: development, a normal state, a safe Poland, and prosperity. The plan included lower and simpler taxes, pension valorization, halting the Green Deal and migration pact, developing CPK, nuclear energy and ports, agricultural support, and creating a Breakthrough Technology Development Fund. He acknowledged he had not fully implemented the plan in his first year but pledged to pursue it consistently each month and year.

Plan 21 binds me, and even if I have not implemented it in full over the year, because it is difficult given this situation, I will implement it consistently every month and every year, because I promised you.

The president reported signing 259 laws during his first year, saying he signed good legislation regardless of which parliamentary majority drafted it. He also used his veto power, including against tax increases, and directly criticised the finance minister.

I will not impose new levies on Poles just because the finance minister cannot manage public finances.

He described himself as a "safety switch where the law is being destroyed" and expressed hope for cooperation with a future parliamentary majority after the 2027 elections.

Local government advocacy

Nawrocki argued that local governments must be strengthened, crediting the eight years of United Right (Zjednoczona Prawica) rule with successful investment programs, infrastructure projects, sports fields, and cultural centres. He pledged to work toward restoring funding programs for municipalities and counties, asking where the budget money that previously flowed to local governments had gone.

I will do everything to bring back programs for Polish local governments. If it worked when war broke out in Ukraine, when there was the COVID pandemic, then I ask, and I asked throughout the election campaign: where is the money that used to flow to capable, developing local governments from the Polish budget?

He also addressed the disputed route of the S7 road, a local infrastructure issue in the Skawina area, and referenced the town's history stretching back to the era of Kazimierz Wielki and its connection to generals Józef and Stanisław Haller.

Poll on past presidents

A United Surveys poll commissioned by Wirtualna Polska, published around the anniversary, asked respondents to name the best president of the Third Republic. The survey placed Aleksander Kwaśniewski, president from 1995 to 2005, first. Lech Kaczyński, president from 2005 to 2010 and co-founder of Law and Justice, came second with 14.2% of responses. The incumbent Nawrocki placed third with 12.3%.