Annual Copernicus Lecture. Poland, New Hope for Europe? A Conversation with Rafał Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw

Rafał Trzaskowski was first elected Mayor of Poland’s capital in 2018 and was re-elected in 2024. In 2020, he was the democratic opposition’s candidate for the Presidency of Poland and came in a close second. Along with the mayors of the capitals of the other Visegrád Group countries, he signed the Pact of Free Cities in December 2019 to promote “common values of freedom, human dignity, democracy, equality, and the rule of law.” A former member of the Polish Parliament, of the European Parliament, and Vice-Chair of the European People’s Party, in 2014 he served as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and in 2013 as Minister for Administration and Digitalization in the Cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Born in Warsaw, Trzaskowski attended Cranbrook High School in Michigan, and later graduated in international relations and English philology from the University of Warsaw. He earned a PhD in Political Science in 2004.

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