Polish Conservative (PiS) presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki says he will sue the liberal-leaning portal Onet for alleging he had at one time been a pimp.
The Polish news outlet claimed that Nawrocki had in his earlier years — when he worked as a security guard at a leading hotel near Gdańsk — been involved in helping hotel guests obtain the services of prostitutes.
“For this bunch of lies and hatred, I will sue Onet in civil proceedings for the protection of personal rights and I will also file a private indictment in criminal proceedings,” said Nawrocki.
Referring to the fact that Onet was owned by Swiss-German media conglomerate Ringer Axel Springer, Nawrocki added: “Today in Poland, the problem is political prostitution that wants to give Poland away for foreign money.”
The latest allegations followed others by Onet including those relating to Nawrocki’s alleged past participation in fights between football fans, his alleged contacts with the underworld and accusations that he had acquired a municipal apartment in an allegedly unethical manner and failed to honour his pledge to support the tenant living in it.
The Onet ‘pimp’ allegations were published on May 26, just six days before Nawrocki, who is supported by PiS, is to face off in a decisive second-round run-off vote for the presidency, He is running against Rafał Trzaskowski, the candidate of the centre-left Civic Coalition, Poland’s main ruling party led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
On May 22, Tusk claimed there were many “facts” about Nawrocki that had not been revealed thus far. When asked by a journalist what those were he said that was the job of the media to find out and report on them.
On May 23, Onet published an article detailing reports of Nawrocki’s alleged involvement in fights between football fans, reports which were not immediately rebuffed by him.
But he has strenuously denied the Onet allegations of him having been involved in pimping.
Onet, for its part, has stood by its allegations that it claimed were based on accounts provided by people who said they worked with Nawrocki at the time. They have refused to be named but reportedly gave the portal written statements and expressed their willingness to testify in court if required.
Nawrocki, who has never previously stood for office, was a former historian, museum director and head of the National Institute of Remembrance (IPN), a role for which he obtained security clearance.
Tusk, interviewed on Polish commercial broadcaster Polsat, referred to the allegations against Nawrocki and challenged the PiS candidate to “seek to clear his name via the courts”. The PM argued that the PiS hopeful could use Polish election law, which required the courts release verdicts within 24 hours if candidates or parties felt they had been defamed.
That legislation, though, only relates to election material and statements by candidates and parties about each other; it does not cover press reports.
When asked what evidence he had against Nawrocki, Tusk referred to comments by MMA fighter and actor Jacek Murański who had made claims regarding the PiS candidate’s alleged connections to criminals.
Uwaga⚠️ Nowe kadry Tuska. Czy to kolejny kandydat do rządowej komisji? pic.twitter.com/vGpp7derep
— Mateusz Morawiecki (@MorawieckiM) May 26, 2025
Murański, who has in the past been convicted of defamation, also recently appeared on government-controlled broadcaster TVP Info regarding Nawrocki.
On the show, he claimed another MMA fighter, who he said had contact with with the PiS candidate, told him that Nawrocki had been involved in pimping at the Gdański hotel. He said the fellow fighter added that later, when Nawrocki became head of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk, he had allowed rooms there to be used for prostitution.
On Polsat, Tusk, when asked by the interviewer why the security services had not picked up on the alleged issues with Nawrocki, replied that he felt it would be wrong for them to interfere during the election process. He added that once the ballot was over, he would make sure the matter was investigated.
The PiS has claimed the security services were leaking information on Nawrocki, citing a banking document that the party said could only have come either from Nawrocki himself or the services that reviewed it as part of its candidate’s security clearance process.
