With Biden in the White House, Poland will be more alone and isolated

Following the presidential elections in November 2016, the Polish government immediately congratulated Donald Trump on his electoral victory. So it was not a question of waiting for an electoral college or “certification” of the election result.

This time, however, Polish President Andrzej Duda, almost four weeks after the election, has yet to congratulate Joe Biden on his electoral victory. Thus, Poland is in good company with Vladimir Putin, another leader who would have preferred four more years with Trump in the White House.

Instead, Duda came up with a curious congratulation expressed for “a successful presidential election campaign.”

Hungarian Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán used the same wording – “successful campaign” – to congratulate Biden. The explanation is limited enthusiasm; Orbán has previously accused Democrats in the United States of “moral imperialism,” which means that Biden’s party has criticized the development toward authoritarian rule in Hungary and Poland.

Disappointment at the outcome of the US elections of the ruling National Conservative Law and Justice (PIS) parties in Poland and Fidesz in Hungary has been clear.

There are many reasons for this.

With Trump in the White House his rule could be legitimized by “the leaders of the free world.”

Now they are without the protection of the person who has been the inspiration and informal leader for all the right-wing populist politicians in the world.

In June, just before the Polish presidential election, Duda Vita visited the House and received strong support from Trump.

PIS had waited four years for a closer alliance with President Trump. The leader of the Kaczynskis party has failed to complete his project of taking control of independent courts, restricting press freedom and undermining the protection of minorities.

PIS had waited four years for a closer alliance with President Trump. The leader of the Kaczynskis party has failed to complete his project to take control of independent courts, restrict press freedom and undermine the protection of minorities.

Another reason It is that Biden, unlike Trump, has been outspoken in his criticism of the policies of the governments of Hungary and Poland.

At an election rally in October, the Democratic presidential candidate included Poland with dictatorships such as Belarus and North Korea: “You see what is happening, from Belarus to Poland to Hungary, and the rise of totalitarian regimes in the world.” Our president Today he supports all kinds of bandits in the world, sends love letters to the Korean dictator and cannot take Putin away, “Biden said.

Those words must have hurt in government circles in Warsaw.

Biden has also distanced himself from homophobic statements by Polish leaders, declaring that “LGBTQ-free zones”, as various regions of Poland have stated, have no place in the EU or anywhere in the world.

Even more troublesome for Kaczynski It is that Biden, unlike the outgoing president of the United States, is a warm friend of the EU. It is an attitude that Biden shares with a large part of Poles. Poll after poll shows that 80 percent of Polish citizens want to stay in the EU, while only 11 percent advocate a “Polexit”.

The development of US-Polish relations with Biden in the White House depends, of course, on both sides. What is clear is that the Biden administration, like Trump, will not encourage the disintegration of the EU in Warsaw. And from the Polish side, farts for Trump are, for natural reasons, history, as is the peculiar idea of ​​naming a US military base in Poland “Fort Trump.”

What is clear is that the Biden administration, like Trump, will not encourage the disintegration of the EU in Warsaw. And from the Polish side, Trump’s farts are, for natural reasons, history, as is the peculiar idea of ​​naming a US military base in Poland “Fort Trump.”

Some advisers believes that Poland must now build relations with the United States from practically scratch. It is a pessimistic view. After all, Poland is part of the NATO defense alliance, an important US interest about which Trump condescendingly expressed. In addition, Poland is an exemplary member: the country’s defense spending is 2.1 percent of GDP, which exceeds the target set by NATO in 2014.

But if you do not want to marginalize Poland, the condition is that the Polish government backs down in its most authoritarian impulses. It’s hard to see that Kaczynski wants to do that.

But Trump, for whom it was all about “business” and public services, was soon gone. And the Polish leadership has Biden as its counterpart, for which democratic values ​​also play a role.

In the spring of 2020, Biden wrote In Foreign Affairs magazine: “The victory of democracy and liberalism over fascism and autocracy created the free world. But this competition doesn’t just define the past. It will also define the future ”.

Biden explained that he plans to organize a “democracy summit” next year to strengthen democratic institutions and confront countries that are regressing in terms of democracy.

Current governments Poland and Hungary can hardly feel welcome at such a summit (much less other US allies like Turkey and the Philippines).

The new Secretary of State of the United States, Antony Blinken, has a strong connection with Europe and especially with Poland. His stepfather Samuel Pisar, a survivor of the German concentration camp Auschwitz, was born in the Polish city of Bialystok. It can also have an impact on Polish-American relations.