June 2 (UPI) -- Karol Nawrocki, a populist conservative backed by U.S. President Donald Trump, has won Poland's presidential runoff election, according to official results released Monday.
Eyes across the country, Europe and even North America were watching the race in Poland, where the presidency is a somewhat symbolic position -- especially compared to the prime minister and their executive powers -- but one that does carry veto authority.
The election of Nawrocki also suggests a political shift in the deeply divided nation.
Warsaw Mayor Rafal Kazimierz Trzaskowski -- of Prime Minister Donald Tusk's Civic Platform party -- had narrowly beaten Nawrocki, a conservative historian who ran as an independent, in the first round of voting on May 18, but failed to secure a majority of the votes to win the presidency outright.
In Sunday's runoff, the roles were reversed, and it was Nawrocki who secured the narrow victory. According to official results, Nawrocki, 42, won 50.89% of the vote. The liberal Trzaskowski, 53, received 49.11%.
Of the 20.8 million votes cast -- representing 71.6% of Poland's electorate -- nearly 37,000 votes separated the two candidates.
Nawrocki was backed by the nationalist opposition Law and Justice party.
Speaking to reporters Sunday night as exit polls were being released, Nawrocki said they must stop Tusk's government from achieving a "monopoly" on power, Polish international news network TVP World reported.
He also thanked his supporters in the speech, saying they "succeeded in achieving something very important, something that will last for the next months and years: we managed to unit the patriotic camp in Poland, everyone who wants a normal Poland, a Poland without illegal immigrants, a safe Poland."
In his victory, Nawrocki overcame numerous scandals including allegedly being involved in an organized football hooligan fight in 2009 while working at a state-run organization that investigated crimes committed during communist rule and the Nazi era.
In the United States, Nawrocki had the support of far-right conservatives, including Trump, who hosted the presidential candidate at the White House last month, as well as backing from his administration.
Days before the runoff, the United States' leading conservative gathering, the Conservative Political Action Conference, was held in Poland where U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem urged voters to cast ballots for Nawrocki.
"He needs to be the next president of Poland," she said at the start of her 20-minute speech, while calling Trzaskowski "a socialist" and "an absolute train wreck of a leader."
"Donald Trump is a strong leader for us, and you have an opportunity to have just as strong of a leader in Karol," she said. "If you make him the leader of this country, you can be that shining city on a hill that the rest of Europe and the world will watch and know how strong you are, how free you are, because you've elected the right leader."
Viktor Orban, the authoritarian prime minister of Hungary, was among world leaders to cheer Nawrocki's victory.
On X, Orban said: "What a nail-biter! Congratulations to President @NawrockiKn on his fantastic victory in the Polish presidential elections. We are looking forward to working with you on strengthening the Visegrad cooperation."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also congratulated Nawrocki, while voicing confidence that "the EU will continue its very good cooperation with Poland."
"We are all stronger together in our community of peace, democracy and values," she said on X. "So let us work to ensure the security and prosperity of our common home."
Czech President Petr Pavel, who also congratulated Nawrocki, said that under the conservative's leadership, he believed "Poland will continue to develop its democratic and pro-Western direction and that our countries will continue their mutually beneficial cooperation."
