Latest news with #LawAndJusticeParty
Bloomberg
3 days ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Poland: Tusk Calls for Confidence Vote in His Government
00:00 What is Tusk's motivation, Oli, for calling a confidence vote? Does he need to call this vote at this point? He wants to demonstrate before lawmakers, before the whole world that there is still a mandate within the government that this is a vote that he really believes that he's going to win very comfortably. This is not the sort of thing that is going to sort of bring down the government, but it does follow, Tom, as you say, the loss of his ally, the candidate that he really wanted to win that election, the person who would have made his legislative priorities possible to defeat to the Law and Justice Party, the far right nationalist part of the Polish political spectrum that basically now creates a huge amount of gridlock within Poland because the president has a lot of veto powers over everything that the prime minister would like to do. Donald Tusk is still the sort of prominent political force, but he can be basically blocked by a lot of his priorities by the president. And at the end of the day, he's going have to figure out how to navigate that landscape. We are also going to expect a reshuffle of the government to maybe streamline things a little bit. We also heard from Donald Tusk saying also that he wanted everyone to see, including his opponents at home and abroad, that we are not that we are ready for the situation, that we understand the gravity of the moment, but we do not intend to take a single step back. He may not take a single step back, but it's going to be very difficult to see how he's going to manage to put and take steps forward, particularly feeling the heat as he is coming from the far right at a time when Poland was really going to change its trajectory and sort of get unlock a bunch of EU funds and sort of his liberalizing agenda that basically comes potentially to a dead halt. He needs to figure out what his Plan B is, and that is what he's assembling now.
Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
Support From Trump Lifts Candidate in Poland's Knife-Edge Presidential Race
WARSAW—When the Law and Justice Party first picked Karol Nawrocki as its presidential candidate six months ago, most Polish voters didn't know who he was. The historian-turned-politician sought to burnish his credentials by staking out conservative policies and capitalizing on fatigue over the war in Ukraine. But he got what was perhaps his biggest boost from more than 4,000 miles away, when President Trump gave him a nod of approval.
Telegraph
6 days ago
- General
- Telegraph
The future of Europe will be decided in this election
Poland's presidential elections are slated to have a nail-biting conclusion. Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzakowski narrowly triumphed in the first round on May 18 but his once significant polling lead in the second runoff vanished in the final days. Independent candidate Karol Nawrocki is nipping at his heels and has the momentum heading into election day on June 1. The clash between Trzakowski and Nawrocki is much more than a standard fare liberal-conservative rivalry. It is a contest that has seismic implications for Polish society and the balance of political forces in Europe. A Trzakowski victory would reinforce pro-European solidarity and weaken the Nawrocki-aligned Law and Justice Party (PiS)'s crusade against the EU's normative agenda. A Nawrocki victory would be a triumph for Polish nationalism and provide President Donald Trump's MAGA movement with a stalwart ally on Nato's eastern flank. As the election campaign draws to a close, social issues have been a critical wedge between the two candidates. Trzakowski's campaign has channelled liberal frustrations with the PiS's less-than-inclusive stance on LGBTQ+ rights and support for a near-complete abortion ban. These stances align firmly with Prime Minister Donald Tusk's agenda and provide him with an ally to implement progressive legislation. Nawrocki has mocked Trzakowski's liberal leanings by placing the LGBTQ+ rainbow flag on his lectern and extolled his commitment to Christian values. While it is unclear how his conservative ideological leanings will convert into policy, Nawrocki is almost certain to continue President Andrzej Duda's obstructionism of Tusk's progressive vision. The stakes for Poland's position within the Trans-Atlantic network are equally stark. Since Trump's return to the White House, Tusk has towed a delicate line between EU and US perspectives on continental security. Tusk has emphasised European self-sufficiency in the defence sector and supported Poland's pursuit of an autonomous nuclear deterrent. On March 31, Tusk signed a $2 billion agreement with the US for training and logistical support for its Patriot missile defence program. Poland's two presidential frontrunners favour a lean-to-one-side approach to the EU-US chasm. Trzakowski will seek to end the PiS-era normative disputes with the EU over the rule of law, migration and LGBTQ+ rights. In addition to securing EU funding, Trzakowski will also champion Ukraine's entry into Nato. This stance clashes with Trump's aversion to Ukrainian Nato membership and Nawrocki's insistence that Ukraine can only join the alliance if it accepts guilt for the World War II-era genocide against Poles in Volhynia. Nawrocki has built on the Trump administration's overt sympathy for right-wing populist candidates and forged robust alliances on the American right. On May 2, Nawrocki met with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at The White House. At the May 27 CPAC Poland conference, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem declared 'Donald Trump is a strong leader for us but has an opportunity to have just as strong of a leader in Karol if you make him leader of this country.' Due to their diametrically opposed visions and the emotionally charged nature of the campaign, the Polish elections have witnessed the same kind of warnings about anti-democratic behaviour as we recently saw in Romania. According to Poland's state anti-disinformation watchdog NASK, a foreign-funded NGO has used Meta to promote pro-Trzakowski and anti-Nawrocki messages. Nawrocki has accused Trzakowski of soliciting funding from Germany and billionaire George Soros, and Trzakowski has threatened litigation in response to these allegations. Poland's national cybersecurity authorities have retorted with warnings about Russian interference in the Polish elections. Russian information warriors falsified Ukrainian House correspondences about organising a pro-Trzakowksi election rally and have linked Trzakowski to the much-despised Nazi-aligned Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera. Just like how pro-Kremlin TikTok influencers enabled Calin Georgescu's implausible rise in Romania, Russian-aligned cyberwarriors are providing unwitting support for Nawrocki's insurgent campaign. The heated debates about the state of Polish democracy feed into disagreements about Poland's foreign policy orientation. The laser focus of pro-EU organisations on Russian disinformation and the European Commission's silence about Trzakowski's foreign-backed NGO ally is striking. US House Foreign Relations Committee chair Brian Mast's castigation of EU favouritism for Trzakowski and willingness to gloss over the Russian disinformation threat is equally noteworthy. As millions of Poles arrive at their polling stations on June 1, there is much more than a presidential pick on the ballot. Depending on the outcome, Tusk's liberal pro-EU agenda could be empowered or derailed across the continent.
Times
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Poland's pivotal election could deliver abortion pledge at last
When Martyna Stopyra voted for Donald Tusk's winning coalition in Poland's 2023 parliamentary election, she hoped he would steer their country back towards the European mainstream after eight years of rule by the conservative Law and Justice Party. Like many other liberal-minded Poles she was particularly impressed by the former European Council president's promise that within 100 days of coming to power he would liberalise Poland's laws on abortion, which are among the most restrictive on the continent. 'I want to have children one day, but should there be any difficulties with the pregnancy, I would be terrified of not being able to access abortion services in Poland,' said Stopyra, 30, an American-educated art historian. Yet more than 500 days later, abortion remains as inaccessible
