The election of Karol Nawrocki as Poland’s new president this week was bound to cause upset throughout the media and political classes. Predictably, there came the cries of “foreign interference”, because the right-wing populist candidate won.
According to Brussels-based American journalist Dave Keating, it was U.S. president Donald Trump who helped Nawrocki to victory, as part of America’s plan for “regime change in Europe.” His basis for this is the fact that Trump had openly backed Nawrocki.
Last week, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem endorsed Nawrocki’s campaign on behalf of the Trump administration at CPAC Poland. Keating points out that it was previously “unheard of for a sitting cabinet member in the U.S. government to campaign for an opposition figure in a supposedly allied government.” But if Washington’s involvement raised eyebrows, it was nothing compared with the arguably more insidious tampering coming from much closer to home.
Of course, the U.S. is by no means the only foreign power with an interest in Poland’s new president. In the run-up to the elections, it was revealed that European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen had made her own interference by trying to protect the electoral chances of Nawrocki’s pro-Brussels rival, Rafał Trzaskowski—who was naturally the favoured candidate of Polish prime minister Donald Tusk. She reportedly delayed announcing several key EU decisions—including new climate targets, trade talks with Ukraine and the EU-Mercosur trade agreement—because she knew they would be particularly sensitive in Poland. She also chose to not publicly challenge Tusk’s opposition to the EU’s binding Pact on Migration and Asylum, in the hopes that he would fall into line after the elections.
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