Donald Trump is suddenly looking very lonely on this side of the Atlantic.
In April, Hungary turfed out the US President’s major conservative ally in Europe. At the Nato summit earlier this month, Trump alienated even Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s ideologically aligned prime minister, in a spat over a photo. And now, after over a year of belittling and threatening America’s European allies, even traditionally close nations like Germany are openly criticising him – knowing that their publics largely dislike him.
Yet Trump and Maga are not throwing in the towel when it comes to their declared project of “restoring Europe’s civilisational self-confidence and Western identity” through spreading their own conservative values. The US still has one major cheerleader on the continent.
Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, is culturally aligned with the right-wing ideology promoted by Trump’s White House. While he ran as an independent, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which was in power from 2015 to 2023, backs him.
As President, Nawrocki does not run the government of Poland, which is led by the more liberal Donald Tusk and his Civic Coalition. However, the President has sway over foreign and defence policy and holds important powers of blocking and shaping it through appointments and vetoes. He is trying to expand the currently limited powers of the presidency.
