WARSAW: Conservative lawyer Andrzej Duda was sworn in on Thursday as Poland’s president, promising generous social benefits and calling for a greater NATO presence in the region amid concerns over the perceived threat from Russia.

The 43-year-old devout Catholic with an easy smile, who is allied with the populist Law and Justice (PiS) opposition party, took over from liberal Bronislaw Komorowski, whom he unexpectedly defeated in a May vote.

Komorowski is close to the governing centrist Civic Platform (PO) that has been in power since 2007 but is now trailing PiS in opinion polls ahead of an October general election.

After taking the oath of office, Duda expressed thanks to the late president Lech Kaczynski, who died in a 2010 plane crash in Russia and whose controversial twin brother Jaroslaw is a former prime minister and current PiS leader.

When PiS was in power, the Kaczynski twins pursued a conservative agenda hostile to both Russia and the European Union. Their right-wing coalition government fell, doomed by infighting.

Duda has expressed fidelity to the views of the twins and recently sang the praises of Jaroslaw in an interview: “He’s a great politician, often disparaged but able to recover every time. Poland has few politicians as strong and determined as him.”

But Duda has sought to stress his independence by pledging not to surround himself with close Kaczynski aides.

He also quit PiS after winning the presidential vote, saying: “A president should not represent a party. He should be at the service of society as a whole.”

The president of the central European powerhouse of 38 million people has limited powers, which include steering defense and foreign policy and the right to veto legislation.

Stressing security, Duda on Thursday called on the NATO defense alliance to do more for the region.

“All of us in central-eastern Europe need a greater NATO presence here given the current difficult geopolitical situation,” he told parliament, referring to Russian meddling in neighboring Ukraine.

He said he hoped that “that would be guaranteed explicitly” at the next NATO summit in Warsaw next year.

At home Duda pledged to introduce the social benefits he promised in fiery campaign speeches, including new tax exemptions and a lower retirement age, which the PO government had gradually pushed back to 67 years.