Despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s “attacks on NATO and on Ukraine,” PiS continues to align with him to court right-wing voters, Politico said. “There’s a lot of political mileage in Poland for sticking with Trump — something PiS hopes to capitalize on in May’s presidential election,” the outlet reported.
Focus on Ukraine
While PiS leaders have historically been “vociferously anti-Russian,” the party’s new presidential candidate, Karol Nawrocki, is “also all-in for Trump,” Politico wrote. Nawrocki praised Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine, even though the U.S. president has been “criticized for taking a strongly pro-Russian line in the talks.”
According to Politico, Nawrocki openly questioned Ukraine’s democratic credentials and ruled out its rapid accession to NATO or the EU “until important … issues for Poles are resolved.”
In contrast, civic opposition figures such as Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski—leading in some polls—remain staunch supporters of Ukraine. Others in PiS, however, express unease over Trump’s closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin and the potential undermining of NATO.
“Zelenskyy isn’t a dictator,” one PiS lawmaker told Politico, distancing himself from Trump’s rhetoric.
Election stakes
Both PiS and the centrist Civic Platform party see the May election as pivotal. Trzaskowski is polling at about 34%, while Nawrocki, at around 26%, also faces competition from the far-right Confederation party.
If no candidate wins a majority in the first round, a runoff will be held two weeks later. “They had better not stick to [Trump] too closely,” Paweł Maranowski, a sociologist at Collegium Civitas, told Politico.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, also aligned with PiS, briefly met Trump at the CPAC gathering near Washington, inviting him to Warsaw on April 28—just three weeks before the election—according to Politico.
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Source: Politico, PAP