Latest news with #anti-Kyiv
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Poland's election result could impact EU
Nationalist Karol Nawrocki's victory in Poland's presidential election deals a major blow to pro-EU premier Donald Tusk and looks set to rattle Brussels. As president, Nawrocki's powers will be limited and he will be second fiddle to Tusk -- but he will still be able to keep stymying the government's reform agenda. "It's certainly not something to rejoice about," a senior EU diplomat told AFP, even if in many ways "the situation will be the same as today" following Nawrocki's win. Here's how the win for the 42-year-old historian, who was endorsed by US President Donald Trump, could impact the EU: - Domestic deadlock = EU headache? - After two years of uncomfortable cohabitation with outgoing President Andrzej Duda, Tusk had hoped a win for his candidate would finally break Poland's political deadlock. But Nawrocki's triumph means Tusk is set to remain thwarted in his push to roll back years of democratic backsliding under the Law and Justice (PiS) party. "It's a catastrophe, but not a new catastrophe," said analyst Daniel Hegedus from the German Marshall Fund. "The election results will in practice mean the continuation of the status quo in Poland." Nawrocki is expected to continue wielding his veto to block efforts to undo hardline laws on abortion and LGBT+ rights before the next parliamentary election in 2027. That looks set to make it more difficult for Tusk to fully deliver on addressing concerns from Brussels over the rule of law in Poland. - Support for Ukraine? Nawrocki throughout his campaign was critical of Ukraine and its push to join NATO and the EU. Petrified by the threat from Russia, Poland has been a stalwart backer of Kyiv under Tusk. But the country, which took in over one million Ukrainian refugees in 2022, has in recent years seen growing anti-Kyiv sentiment, a trend that only accelerated during the presidential race. On the EU stage, Nawrocki's restricted powers mean he has little leeway to play the spoiler on the bloc's efforts to aid Kyiv. Tusk remains the one calling the shots for Warsaw at summits of the bloc's 27 leaders in Brussels. "When EU decisions don't require national legislation to be implemented from Poland, Nawrocki's competences will be pretty limited to block them," Hegedus said. "I think we don't need to be afraid of Poland emerging as a veto power in European decision making," he added. But the harsher tone against Ukraine looks set to grow louder from PiS in the run-up to the 2027 election. - Boost for Orban's pals? While Nawrocki's win may not upend Brussels, it was welcomed by the EU's cohort of nationalist leaders spearheaded by Hungary's Viktor Orban as a triumph for their anti-EU cause. Orban hailed the "fantastic victory" and said he was "looking forward" to working together. "We have to take the result of these elections very, very seriously," said Ramona Coman, a specialist in European issues at the ULB university in Brussels. Coman said the result highlighted the "major democratic disenchantment" that is taking place not only in Poland, but across Europe. - Green fears? Another area where Nawrocki is at loggerheads with Brussels is on its climate ambitions. He is a strong proponent of protecting Polish coal mining and has resolutely opposed the EU's "Green Deal". He has even proposed holding a referendum on the EU's drive to slash carbon emissions, but seems to lack the powers to drive it through. Activists say that despite the new president's outspoken stance, Poland is slowly but surely reducing its use of coal, and that the trend looks set to continue. "The energy transition is progressing -- despite political slogans," said Michal Smolen of the Instrat Foundation in Warsaw. "However, it will depend on the quality of cooperation between the ruling coalition and the new president whether we can go through this process in an orderly manner." - Trump's influence? Trump threw his considerable heft behind Nawrocki, and he was strongly backed by the US president's MAGA movement. Whether Trump's support helped push him to victory in Poland is a question that will absorb politicians across the EU. Last month, a far-right Trump ally in Romania failed to stop pro-EU centrist Nicusor Dan from winning the presidency in a tightly fought race. cjc-del/ec/js
France 24
02-06-2025
- Politics
- France 24
How Poland's election result could impact EU
As president, Nawrocki's powers will be limited and he will be second fiddle to Tusk -- but he will still be able to keep stymying the government's reform agenda. "It's certainly not something to rejoice about," a senior EU diplomat told AFP, even if in many ways "the situation will be the same as today" following Nawrocki's win. Here's how the win for the 42-year-old historian, who was endorsed by US President Donald Trump, could impact the EU: Domestic deadlock = EU headache? After two years of uncomfortable cohabitation with outgoing President Andrzej Duda, Tusk had hoped a win for his candidate would finally break Poland's political deadlock. But Nawrocki's triumph means Tusk is set to remain thwarted in his push to roll back years of democratic backsliding under the Law and Justice (PiS) party. "It's a catastrophe, but not a new catastrophe," said analyst Daniel Hegedus from the German Marshall Fund. "The election results will in practice mean the continuation of the status quo in Poland." Nawrocki is expected to continue wielding his veto to block efforts to undo hardline laws on abortion and LGBT+ rights before the next parliamentary election in 2027. That looks set to make it more difficult for Tusk to fully deliver on addressing concerns from Brussels over the rule of law in Poland. - Support for Ukraine? Nawrocki throughout his campaign was critical of Ukraine and its push to join NATO and the EU. Petrified by the threat from Russia, Poland has been a stalwart backer of Kyiv under Tusk. But the country, which took in over one million Ukrainian refugees in 2022, has in recent years seen growing anti-Kyiv sentiment, a trend that only accelerated during the presidential race. On the EU stage, Nawrocki's restricted powers mean he has little leeway to play the spoiler on the bloc's efforts to aid Kyiv. Tusk remains the one calling the shots for Warsaw at summits of the bloc's 27 leaders in Brussels. "When EU decisions don't require national legislation to be implemented from Poland, Nawrocki's competences will be pretty limited to block them," Hegedus said. "I think we don't need to be afraid of Poland emerging as a veto power in European decision making," he added. But the harsher tone against Ukraine looks set to grow louder from PiS in the run-up to the 2027 election. - Boost for Orban's pals? While Nawrocki's win may not upend Brussels, it was welcomed by the EU's cohort of nationalist leaders spearheaded by Hungary's Viktor Orban as a triumph for their anti-EU cause. Orban hailed the "fantastic victory" and said he was "looking forward" to working together. "We have to take the result of these elections very, very seriously," said Ramona Coman, a specialist in European issues at the ULB university in Brussels. Coman said the result highlighted the "major democratic disenchantment" that is taking place not only in Poland, but across Europe. - Green fears? Another area where Nawrocki is at loggerheads with Brussels is on its climate ambitions. He is a strong proponent of protecting Polish coal mining and has resolutely opposed the EU's "Green Deal". He has even proposed holding a referendum on the EU's drive to slash carbon emissions, but seems to lack the powers to drive it through. Activists say that despite the new president's outspoken stance, Poland is slowly but surely reducing its use of coal, and that the trend looks set to continue. "The energy transition is progressing -- despite political slogans," said Michal Smolen of the Instrat Foundation in Warsaw. "However, it will depend on the quality of cooperation between the ruling coalition and the new president whether we can go through this process in an orderly manner." - Trump's influence? Trump threw his considerable heft behind Nawrocki, and he was strongly backed by the US president's MAGA movement. Whether Trump's support helped push him to victory in Poland is a question that will absorb politicians across the EU. Last month, a far-right Trump ally in Romania failed to stop pro-EU centrist Nicusor Dan from winning the presidency in a tightly fought race.
Yahoo
07-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Emboldened by Trump, Hungary ups anti-Kyiv disinfo: researcher
A country that "never existed" or a "problem called Ukraine": Hungary's government and affiliated media have attacked their war-torn neighbour with increased pace since Prime Minister Viktor Orban's "dear friend" Donald Trump took power. Orban and his allies have long used the same "hostile narratives" against the West and Ukraine as Russia, Dorka Takacsy, a research fellow at the Budapest-based Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID) think tank told AFP. But the government -- a close EU ally of Washington under Trump and the Kremlin -- is more emboldened since the election of the US Republican. "It seems Hungarian leadership saw Trump's victory as an opportunity to do whatever they want with Ukraine," Takacsy said, noting the number of anti-Kyiv messages from Orban and his allies has increased lately. Trump last month called Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president since 2019, a "dictator" for not holding elections, even though martial law precludes any vote because of the war. Amid a rush of online disinformation targeting Ukraine, here are some key Hungarian statements: - West provoked Russia into war - Orban regularly breaks EU unity on Ukraine, to which he has refused to send arms since Russia invaded in 2022, while slamming EU sanctions on Moscow. In his weekly radio address on Friday, he warned again EU membership of Ukraine would "ruin" the bloc. The nationalist leader also did not join EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, in signing a text on Thursday in support of Ukraine. In late February, Orban blamed the West for provoking Moscow into the conflict. "The war is not really about Ukraine, it is about the fact that the territory called Ukraine -- which has been a buffer zone, a buffer state, between NATO and Russia -- should be brought under the auspices of NATO," Orban said in his annual state of the nation address. "Why European and American liberals thought that the Russians would stand idly by and watch this, is still a mystery," he added. Trump has blamed Ukraine over the war, saying "you should have never started it". Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with Russia occupying almost 20 percent of the country's territory. - 'Never existed' - Echoing a narrative often employed by Putin, Hungary's parliamentary speaker Laszlo Kover this week said Ukraine was a "country that actually has never existed in history". "It has no real political history, no real political elite, no tradition of governance," the ultraconservative politician and Orban ally said in a Tuesday radio interview, adding that only those remain "who are incapable of defending themselves and those who have unscrupulously exploited the weaker". Ukraine, a nation of more than 40 million people, has had a series of elected leaders since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Top Orban aide Balazs Orban -- who has the same last name as the premier but is not related to him -- in a Facebook post on Monday referred to the neighbouring country as a "problem called Ukraine" that now "must be dealt with by the pro-war Europeans". Hungary's pro-government newspaper Magyar Nemzet published opinion pieces, calling Ukraine a "rotten mafia monster state" and referred to the killings in Bucha -- where Russian forces are accused of slaying hundreds of civilians -- as "false flag theatrics". A 2022 UN Human Rights report said Russian forces killed civilians in Bucha and other cities. AFP reporters were among international journalists to document bodies in the streets of Bucha, including some with their hands tied. - 'Bought' celebrities - Hungary's nationalist premier has also referenced in interviews conspiracy narratives about a "global left-wing network" having supposedly "bought" journalists and even US celebrities to boost Zelensky's popularity. "Hollywood stars were paid to go to Kyiv. They paid them millions of dollars," Orban said in a recent interview with state radio. The Hungarian government did not respond to AFP's inquiry about the source of the allegation. The claim may originate from a debunked video, purported to be from the US entertainment show E! News, which was shared by Elon Musk and prominent American conservatives. It alleged without proof that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) "sponsored American celebrity visits to Ukraine... to increase Zelensky's popularity among foreign audiences, particularly in the United States." Russian state media often quotes Orban's remarks on Ukraine at length, according to Takacsy. Orban "paints the same picture of the world that the Kremlin's domestic propaganda would like to suggest... If they can quote the same criticisms of the West, the same accusations, from the mouth of an outsider, it gives extra credibility to the same criticisms," the researcher said. ez-ros/jza/jm
