The 2026 Poland 2050 leadership election was held in January 2026 to elect the leader of Poland 2050, with the outgoing leader, Szymon Hołownia, retiring from the position amongst the party's poor performances in elections. Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz narrowly defeated Paulina Hennig-Kloska for the position. In the first round of the leadership election on 10 January, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz and Hennig-Kloska, representatives of two rival internal factions within the party, advanced to the second round, which was held on 12 January. However, the second round was annulled during voting due to an issue with the voting software, leading to its rescheduling to 31 January.
Electoral system
The party was provisionally chaired by Michał Kobosko in 2020–2022 until Hołownia took chairmanship over his party in 2022, later being selected as party chairman for a three-year term at the first National Convention of the party on 21 January 2023.
The election for party leader of Poland 2050 takes place every three years. Initially, the election was scheduled for 10 January 2026 (9:15 to 15:00 CET), with a runoff on 12 January (16:00 to 22:00 CET), since no candidate gained the support of over 50% of delegates, although the second round was invalidated and rescheduled for 31 January 2026 (16:00 to 22:00 CET). The support signature collection period began on 20 October 2025, with official registrations beginning on 9 December and ended on 10 December. Candidates were required to electronically collect 84 signatures from party members to register in the election. The final list of successfully registered candidates was to be released by 13 December, though ultimately, it was released on 11 December.
Only "regular members" of the party are eligible to vote. Poland 2050 had around 800-860 eligible voters in the 2026 leadership election's first round, and around 800 in the second.
The vote was conducted electronically using the Interankiety (Responsly Platform) web service, with voters receiving emailed election formulas, and the election was monitored by "". In a statement published after the annulled second round, Interankiety (Responsly Platform) claimed that Poland 2050 had used the platform in a standard self-service SaaS model, and stated that the account used for the vote had been automatically blocked after voting links were shared on social media, which triggered the platform's security mechanisms because of an unusually high number of accesses. According to TVN 24, a different service than Interankiety was used in the repeated second round.
On 17 January, the party's National Council () was to convene for the election of four of the nine National Board () members, with four selected by the new party leader and one being the party's parliamentary club leader (currently Paweł Śliz). However, this was hastened to 16 January following the invalidation of the runoff, but during the meeting, the proceedings were paused and resumed on 19 January. Ultimately, the election for four of the party's National Board members was postponed to 7 February.
On 21 January, the term of the party's parliamentary representation in the National Council expired. On 22 January, the parliamentary group selected nine new representatives for the National Council, six from the Sejm and three from the Senate. The party also removed Aleksandra Leo as the co-chair of the Sejm parliamentary group, replacing her with Bartosz Romowicz.
Until 15 January, party's election commission was chaired by Maurycy Przyrowski, and he was later replaced by Marta Cienkowska.
Background
Poland 2050, officially Szymon Hołownia's Poland 2050 (), was founded as a political vehicle for Szymon Hołownia's political ambitions following his good performance in the 2020 Polish presidential election, where he gained 13.9% of the vote in the first round. The party surged in popularity quickly — in mid-2021, it reached its all-time high, positioning itself as the second most popular party in many opinion polls at the time, before declining to third place and later hovering above the 5% electoral threshold. Due to its declining performance, it allied itself with the Polish People's Party (PSL) and other small parties to form the centre-right Third Way political alliance. In the 2023 parliamentary election, this alliance amassed 14.4% of the vote. However, the coalition would soon start losing support after becoming part of the Third Cabinet of Donald Tusk. Most critically, Third Way would suffer a major defeat in the 2025 presidential election, where Hołownia, its candidate, would only gain 4.99% of the vote.
Following this defeat, PSL declared its exit from the Third Way on 17 June. Hołownia was criticized by liberal election denialists for not preventing the inauguration of the then President-elect, Karol Nawrocki by using his power as Marshal of the Sejm to suspend the inauguration. Later, after a meeting on 4 July with the opposition leader, Jarosław Kaczyński of the Law and Justice party, his own position within the ruling coalition and his own party weakened, with two posełs leaving the party and becoming independents. By the time of the leadership election, according to many pollsters, Poland 2050 sat below the 5% electoral threshold required to enter the Sejm. Additionally, the party suffered from a large amount of debt accumulated over its existence, with around 11 million PLN of debt accumulated from the 2023 parliamentary and 2025 presidential elections. Poland 2050's unfavourable election results also contributed to the creation of New Poland, a party with similar ideals to those of Hołownia's party.
On 27 September, Hołownia announced that he would not participate in the next leadership election, stating that it was the "right moment" to change the party's leader. He then announced his application for the role of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
On 30 September, Poland 2050 recommended Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz to the office of Deputy Prime Minister, narrowly defeating her internal party rival, Paulina Hennig-Kloska, for the nomination in votes at both the party's parliamentary club (16 to 14) and the party's National Council (22 to 19). The vote solidified the split between members supportive of further cooperation with the government and Prime Minister Donald Tusk, including Hennig-Kloska, and those wanting a confrontational stance that supported Pełczyńska-Nałęcz.
Campaign Paulina Hennig-Kloska Paulina Hennig-Kloska announced her candidacy on 28 November. Hennig-Kloska began her political career in the party Modern founded by Ryszard Petru, also a contestant in the PL2050's 2026 leadership election. She was elected to the Sejm in 2015 before defecting to Poland 2050 in 2021, becoming one of its representatives before its first contested election in 2023, becoming Minister of Climate and Environment after the election.
Hennig-Kloska orients her tenets on three pillars — dialogue, economy and nature, and supports the model of "liberalism with a human face". Hennig-Kloska called for the party to "return to its roots" and support small business. Her official electoral page praised the decrease in inflation and overall economy under Tusk's government, highlighted the issues of green energy, climate change and called for decentralization of the party.
Hennig-Kloska was a prominent personality within the party's faction that seeks cooperation with prime minister Donald Tusk. Wirtualna Polska described her, alongside Petru, Mucha and Kobosko, as informally allied against Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. Regardless of this, she criticized Petru's start early in her campaign, stating his ideas are unfit for the party. Early in her campaign, she announced that she would be conducting a tour of all voivodeships in Poland. She also challenged the party's endorsement of Pełczyńska-Nałęcz for Deputy Prime Minister, stating that would she win, "it would be difficult to imagine having a superior from my own party in the cabinet".
Hennig-Kloska advanced into the second round of the election along with Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, receiving 20% of votes, narrowly ahead of Joanna Mucha who gained 18% of the vote. In her campaign for the second round, she held an online meeting with around 200 of her supporters. However, the second round was invalidated due to a system error, and Hennig-Kloska's rival, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, offered her to co-lead the party by a decision of the party's National Council. Hennig-Kloska rejected the offer. Rzeczpospolita described Hennig-Kloska as the new frontrunner, eclipsing Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, after the 19 January National Council meeting.
Ultimately, Hennig-Kloska lost the election narrowly, being defeated by Pełczyńska-Nałęcz with 53 of the vote.
Szymon Hołownia Although the outgoing leader, Szymon Hołownia, did not register for the first two rounds of the election, he remained actively involved in the process and, following the invalidation of the second round, attempted to enter the contest.
On 27 September, Hołownia officially declared his intention not to start in the party's routine 2026 leadership election, stating that it was the "right moment" for the party to change its leadership. Early in the campaign, party members and media speculated that Hołownia might retract his statement not to run, especially considering the slim chances of his United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees application succeeding. Several politicians openly called for Hołownia to retract his withdrawal and remain as the party leader, including other candidates: in October, Michał Kobosko supported a return for Hołownia. Hołownia's supporters collected the required signatures for him to register, and proposals were even made to extend the registration period beyond the 10 December deadline so that he could still enter the race. Hołownia nevertheless reiterated his intention to step down and ultimately did not register.
Hołownia's stance on participation changed by early January. On 31 December, he created a secret group chat with 12 of his closest supporters. As early as 3 January, some members suggested delaying or cancelling the party election and explored possible legal avenues that would allow Hołownia to remain leader, though Hołownia himself rejected these at the time. However, after the invalidation of the 12 January runoff, Hołownia announced in a press conference on 13 January that he did not rule out running if the first round was to be repeated along with the second. According to Wirtualna Polska, the majority of party members opposed his return at this stage. Despite this, Hołownia declared his intention to contest a repeated election at the meeting of the party's National Council on 16 January, but withdrew once again on 19 January, when the meeting resumed following a three-day break.
In an interview on 26 January, Hołownia stated that he would exit Poland 2050 if either Pełczyńska-Nałęcz or Hennig-Kloska took control over the party, demanding either a repeat of both rounds of the election or for the party to adopt co-leadership between the two runoff candidates. Ultimately, Hołownia failed to re-enter the election, and it was won by Pełczyńska-Nałęcz.
Rafał Kasprzyk Rafał Kasprzyk announced his candidacy on 8 December. He previously served as an activist of the Modern party, much like Hennig-Kloska and Modern's founder, Ryszard Petru, both contestants in the leadership election. He joined Poland 2050 in 2020, getting elected to the Sejm in 2023.
Kasprzyk emphasized the need for a centrist party in Poland. In his opening announcement, he called for a "new opening" and "rebranding" for the party, rebuilding its credibility and public trust.
Kasprzyk came last in the election with 5% of the vote. He endorsed Hennig-Kloska in the runoff.
Michał Kobosko