The alleged incident

Polish President Karol Nawrocki, in a forthcoming book-length interview with historian Andrzej Nowak, recounts a frightening episode from the 2025 election campaign. On 15 May 2025, after a rally in Ząbkowice Śląskie, he suddenly felt overwhelmingly unwell.

“I finish speaking and suddenly feel something very bad is happening to me. Sudden weakness, as if I'd been punched in the jaw. As if someone had suddenly switched off my body.”

Nawrocki says he lost consciousness in the campaign bus, waking to find his clothes and the vehicle drenched in vomit. He describes compulsive vomiting that aides compared to a scene from The Exorcist. The incident, kept quiet until now, is being treated by some as a possible poisoning attempt.

Political firestorm

The revelation has split the political scene. Former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of the ruling Law and Justice party declared Nawrocki "enemy number one during the campaign" and called the alleged attack plausible. Center-right Civic Coalition MP Patryk Jaskulski dismissed the whole affair as "theatre" and said Nawrocki's circle had "over-egged" the story.

“If it was so serious, we'd need some medical record showing what happened. As you can see, if someone wanted to poison him, it wasn't a successful attack. In my opinion, it's all nonsense and not worth bothering with.”

Media mockery

Onet journalist Andrzej Stankiewicz mocked the tale, sarcastically portraying Nawrocki as indestructible. He contrasted the president's survival with the death of Lech Kaczyński in the 2010 Smolensk crash, implying the story is self-aggrandizing.

Author shifts tone

Prof. Andrzej Nowak, who conducted the book interview, initially spoke of an attempt to "poison, simply poison" Nawrocki. Days later, he suggested a different motive.

“It was about discrediting him, I think not about killing, though it's hard for me to investigate that – the competent authorities should deal with it.”

Nowak speculates the goal may have been to plant stories about snus (nicotine pouch) use, which became a campaign issue later.

Official investigation

Despite skepticism, the District Prosecutor's Office in Świdnica has opened an ex officio inquiry into exposing the president to life-threatening danger. The book "Skąd się wziął Karol Nawrocki" is due for release on 8 July.