WARSAW  – Poland’s main opposition party, the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS), picked historian Karol Nawrocki on Sunday as its candidate for next year’s presidential election, hoping to hold onto the presidency after losing control of parliament.

A pro-European coalition headed by Prime Minister Donald Tusk defeated PiS in a parliamentary election last year, but Tusk’s centrist government has not been able to pass major reforms with PiS ally Andrzej Duda as president. That situation could continue if a PiS-aligned candidate wins again.

Nawrocki, 41, the head of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, was a key figure in PiS efforts to promote patriotism through teaching history that critics said whitewashed the difficult parts of Poland’s past. He will face Tusk’s presidential candidate, progressive Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, in the race, which could prove crucial in the government’s push to undo a PiS court overhaul that the European Union said subverted democratic norms.

Polish presidents have the power to veto laws passed by parliament. “Because we must defend Poland, we must defend our values, we must not allow our symbols to be taken away and our sovereignty to be limited,” Nawrocki said during the presentation of his candidacy on Sunday. As director of the World War Two Museum in the coastal city of Gdansk, Nawrocki changed its main exhibition to emphasize the scale of Polish suffering and stories of Poles who had protected Jews during the Holocaust, resulting in lawsuits against him by the museum’s creators. A significant body of research suggests that, while thousands of Poles risked their lives to help Jews, thousands also participated in the Holocaust. Many Poles do not accept such findings. (Reuters) …[+]