Elections 2025. “Fake photos appear.” This is not Nawrocki

Political Council of Law and Justice at its meeting on November 30, 2024 formally decided about supporting the candidacy of Karol Nawrocki in next year's presidential elections. The President of the Institute of National Remembrance, who took part in the meeting, said during his speech: “Nothing will break me, ladies and gentlemen, but I am not ready to join the fight without your support, without your experience, without your dedication and trust. that we can all win together.”

He was asked about Nawrocki's candidacy on December 2 this year. In “Piasecki's conversation” on TVN24 Michał Dworczyk – PiS MEP and former head of the office of Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Politician he statedthat he “positively” evaluates this choice because “President Nawrocki has a number of advantages that give him a chance in this race.” Then he added: “It will be an extremely difficult race and it is already visible, even after this carpet bombing and the attack that is being launched against him.” When asked by the interviewer, Dworczyk explained that he called “fakes appearing on the Internet, various types of slander” such a “carpet raid”.

He continued: “I'm talking, for example, about the emerging fake photos that are published by – it would seem – serious journalists, or at least people working for serious titles. Then, of course, it is denied, someone even apologized, but it is clear what message was sent: Nawrocki is a neo-fascist who goes crazy at some neo-fascist events. You must admit that this is not a comfortable situation.

He also recalled that “this case has been denied.” “It was a completely different person in the photo provided by employees of major media titles, claiming that it was the president of the Institute of National Remembrance, Karol Nawrocki,” added Dworczyk.

We remind you what photos Michał Dworczyk was talking about and show that, despite the denial from the Institute of National Remembrance, these fakes continue to circulate on social media.

Karol Nawrocki was presented as a “civic” candidate supported by PiS at the party's convention on November 24, 2024. However, photos in which he was allegedly hajla, i.e. performing the Roman salute, now associated with neo-Nazism, had been distributed online earlier. A photograph of three men raising their hands in a fascist salute, signed as “Karol Nawrocki hajluje”, has been made available on website X on February 15, 2024.

This photo was disseminated particularly intensively on social media from November 20 this year, when the media began to unofficially report that he would become the PiS candidate in the elections. It attracted great interest, among others: shared en masse on Facebook groups entry from an anonymous account on Facebook, in which the photo was described: “Apparently, PIS is going to put Nawrocki in the elections, if you don't know who he is, it's the one in the middle!”. It was shared by over 440 people.

The photo could also be found on the accounts of some public figures. On November 22, it was shared by, among others, Krzysztof Luft, member of the TVP Program Council, who wrote: “Seriously? The one in the middle? Who thought of making him the president of Poland?” The deputy editor-in-chief of “Gazeta Wyborcza” is Bartosz T. Wieliński in the program He told Super Express that “there is a photo of him [Karol Nawrocki] poses in a Nazi salute.” “I'm sorry, but this is a disqualification. A man who has such a photo… whose photo is circulating, let's say, to protect himself here, should be deleted from the start. However, these youthful or middle-aged stories involving him are very disturbing,” he added.

On the same day – November 22, 2024 – the Institute of National Remembrance commented on the photos, denying that they showed President Karol Nawrocki. “Due to suggestions appearing in the media, including social media, that the president of the Institute of National Remembrance, Dr. Karol Nawrocki, is in the photo showing men shouting, the Institute of National Remembrance declares that this is gross manipulation” – wrote in statement signed by the IPN spokesman, Rafał Leśkiewicz, who explained:

IN statement it was emphasized that “every case of repeating this lie will be met with a strong reaction from the Institute of National Remembrance, we will file lawsuits in each case.”

Tomasz Greniuch – incorrectly presented as Karol Nawrocki – was in the past a member of the National Radical Camp (ONR). The described photo comes from an event organized by this organization in 2007: behind the back of the shouting Greniuch, you can see a banner with the inscription ONR. From 2018, he worked at the IPN Branch in Opole, and on February 9, 2021, he was appointed acting director of the IPN Branch in Wrocław. He didn't even work in this position for a month, because first the Krakow “Gazeta Wyborcza” published photos the hacking Greniuch, and on February 25, 2021, the Institute of National Remembrance terminated his employment contract, justifying it with “loss of trust”.

After the Institute of National Remembrance issued a statement regarding the photo, Krzysztof Luft deleted his entry and then posted “correction and apology”. “The shouting young man was not a collaborator of the current president of the Institute of National Remembrance, but an employee of the Institute, dismissed by the previous president,” he wrote. Also Bartosz T. Wieliński he wrote on website

However, despite the Institute of National Remembrance's denial, a photo with a misleading description is still published on social media. Two days after issuing the statement, on November 24, 2024, the photo was posted by, among others, senator of the Civic Coalition, Marek Borowski, who wrote: “Mr. President Karol Nawrocki! Is this really you or a fake? Please confirm or correct it” (the entry has already been deleted).

The photo with the incorrect description keeps coming back, mainly due to anonymous accounts. On Facebook you can find for example anonymous entry of December 2 with a photo and a caption saying that Karol Nawrocki “is the one in the middle” and the note: “Hitler. President.”

In addition, there is also a second photo circulating on social media of a shouting man, signed as Karol Nawrocki. They were published, for example, on November 25, so after the IPN's denial, on an anonymous account on website

As in the case of the previous photo, this one also shows Tomasz Greniuch instead of Nawrocki. It was performed in 2005 during the ONR demonstration in Myślenice.