At a panel at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski took the opportunity to declare that the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump had departed from a longstanding diplomatic norm by publicly signaling support for conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki ahead of his presidential victory in Poland last year.
Trump’s choice of hosting Nawrocki at the White House last May (immediately before Polish elections), as well as of excluding PM Donald Tusk from a call with European leaders in August and inviting Nawrocki instead, breaches that convention, says Sikorski.
Sikorski says that this goes against an implicit understanding among allied nations to refrain from intervening in one another’s domestic party politics.
He called these moves “entirely inappropriate” and “outrageous”.
This marks a big shift: Poland was among the most pro-American countries in Europe for decades, with government and opposition parties alike competing over alignment with Washington.
Trump himself often praised Poland’s consistent fulfillment of its NATO defense spending commitments.
