Five things to know about Poland ahead of election

Here are five things to know about Poland, a NATO and European Union member of 38 million people that is holding the first round of its presidential election on Sunday.

Migration 

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from its war-torn neighbour.

According to official data, around a million Ukrainian refugees now reside in Poland, mostly women and children. Over 1.5 million Ukrainians have valid Polish residence permits.

Warsaw has also been one of Kyiv's staunchest allies, offering it political and military support.

But anti-migrant backlash has become a hot-button issue.

The ruling pro-EU coalition of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the far-right opposition both now back curbing social benefits for foreigners -- including Ukrainians.

Poland also faced criticism from human rights groups after it suspended the right to seek asylum for migrants crossing the border from Belarus.

The Polish authorities have accused Russia and its ally Belarus of pushing thousands of migrants over their borders in recent years.

They have blamed Minsk and Moscow for "hybrid attacks" they say are orchestrated to destabilise the EU.

Military spending 

Poland far outstrips NATO's two-percent-of-GDP defence spending target, with 4.7 percent of its economic output earmarked this year for military expenditure.

Next year, it aims to raise it further, to around five percent of GDP -- a level US President Donald Trump is pressuring allies to agree to.

Fearing threats from Russia, Poland has for several years rapidly modernised its military, with a string of arms contracts, mainly with the United States and South Korea.

Earlier this month, Poland also signed a new treaty with France, committing both sides to mutual assistance in case of an attack by an aggressor.

In March, the Polish government announced plans for a large-scale military training scheme designed to ensure that every adult man in the country could be trained in case of war.

The scheme -- open to both men and women -- will be voluntary. The government hopes to offer the training to 100,000 civilians a year starting in 2027.

People attend a final campaign rally of Slawomir Mentzen, a presidential candidate of the far-right Konfederacja alliance, at the Podgorski Square in Krakow, Poland on May 16, 2025. (Credit: AFP)

Climate woes

Poland remains heavily coal-dependent, accounting for around 63 percent of its energy production.

Its massive Belchatow brown coal-fired power station is the EU's "single largest greenhouse gas emitter", according to environmental nonprofit Ember.

The previous government took a step towards transition from coal in September 2023, when it signed a deal for the country's first nuclear power plant.

The first reactor is set to come online in 2033.

Poland plans to eventually have three nuclear power plants, each with three reactors, generating around 30 percent of its energy production.

Catholic Church

Long considered a Catholic bastion of Europe, Poland is proving to be less and less so, with a drop of more than 16 percentage points in people declaring themselves Catholic in the space of a decade.

According to the latest national census, in 2021, only 71.3 percent of Poles declared themselves Catholic, compared to 87.6 percent in 2011.

Poland's once-powerful Catholic Church is now facing a popularity crisis following a series of sexual abuse cases among priests and accusations of preferential treatment by the nationalist party previously in power.

Near-total abortion ban 

Poland has one of Europe's most stringent abortion laws.

Women can only get an abortion in the hospital if the pregnancy results from sexual assault or incest or poses a direct threat to the life or health of the mother.

Assisting abortion is punishable by up to three years in jail.

According to official numbers, in 2024, only 896 abortions were performed in the country of 38 million people.

But a network of abortion rights groups, Abortion Without Borders, said it had supported 47,000 people in accessing abortion care that same year.