Nationalist Wins Polish Presidency After Nod From Trump
The Poles are the latest Europeans to send the message that they want their storied nation to be sovereign and socially conservative. Political newcomer and former boxer Karol Nawrocki was officially declared president-elect on Monday.
Voter turnout was the largest since the election following the collapse of communism in 1989, at nearly 72 percent. Nawrocki defeated Warsaw’s leftist mayor Rafal Trzaskowski by a margin of less than two percent, with 50.9 percent of the votes.
Nawrocki’s victory is a blow to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s liberal, pro-European Union government. While the Polish president doesn’t have the power to create policy, he can veto legislation. And since Tusk’s government doesn’t hold a three-fifths parliamentary majority, Nawrocki, like his predecessor, will likely make use of that power.
Trump Endorsement
Nawrocki’s victory is being attributed, at least in part, to the most visible politician in the world. The Wall Street Journal reports:
He got what was perhaps his biggest boost from more than 4,000 miles away, when President Trump gave him a nod of approval.… Trump’s backing might not have been the deciding factor in catapulting Nawrocki to Poland’s presidential palace, but it gave him an edge in a tight race. At a time when Trump-styled conservatism has faltered in other recent elections such as in Canada, Australia and Romania, it found fertile ground in Poland and helped Nawrocki as he was looking to establish a political identity.
Milan Nic, a senior research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations, told the Journal that a May 1 meeting between Nawrocki and Trump generated a photo of the two together that boosted his political value. “Among everything that came out of Washington,
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