The image of the Polish premier and former President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, which a few weeks ago together with Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer e Friedrich Merz was traveling on the train to Kiev to meet the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky it could remain locked in an archive for a long time.
Poland: Tusk's Defeat and Nawrocki's Sovereignist Victory
In that photo, Tusk clearly showed the need for his country to be in the leading carriage of the Union (instead of Meloni's Italy), alongside the so-called coalition of the "willing", even though he was sceptical about the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine. With the last presidential electionPolish, the hope of seeing Warsaw continue to play a leading role in the European integration process risks being disappointed. Polish voters, contradicting the predictions of the day before, have chosen Karol Nawrocki, sovereignist, party candidate Law and Justice (PiS) of the outgoing president Andrzej Duda, compared to the defeated Rafal Trzaskowski, pro-European, mayor of Warsaw and candidate of Tusk's coalition. A narrow victory, 51% against just over 49%.
Nawrocki challenges Tusk and focuses on alliance with the US
Nawrocki immediately expressed his program: "We will save Poland - he said - we will not allow Donald Tusk to have a monopoly on power. A bad government that does not care about public finances and deprives us of our great dreams and aspirations". For his part, the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that he will ask a vote of confidence in Parliament: “I want everyone to see, including our opponents, at home and abroad, that we are ready for this situation, that we understand the gravity of the moment, but that we have no intention of taking a step back”. The reaction of Trump on Truth, according to which in Poland "Trump's loyal ally wins, shocking all of Europe". And Nawrocki declared that a strong alliance with the United States It's his top priority.
From Moscow, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, commented on the victory of Karol Nawrocki in the Polish presidential elections, doubting that in Poland "a politician will come to power" who "understands the need to think about normalizing relations with neighbors, first and foremost with the Russian Federation". To the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen who had congratulated the new President Nawrocki recalled that "the European Union is a community of independent and sovereign states, based on respect for national sovereignty".
The sovereignist wind shakes Europe and NATO
A victory for the PiS candidate that fits into the framework of that sovereignty Trumpian-driven so far led by Hungarian Orban. The sovereignist wind is blowing on at least two new Member States (2004), such as Hungary e Poland. Meanwhile, in Netherlands the exit from the majority of the far-right PVV party Gert Wilders, due to delays in immigration policies, has prompted the Prime Minister Dick Schoof to announce, after just over a year, the resignation of the government. A crisis that affects a country that will host the summit of NATO heads of state and government in The Hague on May 24. Wilders said he was frustrated by what he called the slowness in introducing the "most restrictive immigration policy ever", agreed with coalition partners after his election victory in November 2023. It is not at all a given, however, that in the event of new elections Wilders' party will be able to repeat the result of 2023. But there are also discouraging signs in some of the founding member states of the EU. In France, Jordan Bardella, after Marine Le Pen is out of the game, would have the favor of the polls when the incumbent president can no longer present himself. Berlin The coalition included the SPD to prevent a slide to the right towards the AfD, a party with neo-Nazi sympathies. The reference to a dark past evidently does not disturb the voters of the new president of Poland.
Italy between sovereignism and Europeanism
As for theItaly, the government has a sovereignist and pro-Trumpian component. The pro-European current, of which the Quirinale and the Farnesina are jealous custodians, has so far softened Meloni's Atlantic extremism. A current that aims to stay within the process of European integration as a founding country and to influence the course of events, without appearing to be followers of the Franco-German axis. An attitude that was first manifested with the choice to join the narrow band of the European Monetary System in the seventies and then with the entry into the euro.
The challenge for Europe today comes from outside, from the war on European soil and from the American detachment from Europe, especially after President Trump's declaration that the conflict in Ukraine is ultimately a matter between Europeans. That will be the litmus test to measure Europe's ability to walk alone without the support of its American ally.
