WARSAW (Reuters) -The presidential candidate backed by Poland’s main nationalist opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) Karol Nawrocki met President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, the White House said, in a sign of support shortly before the election.
Poles will vote in the first round of a presidentialballot on May 18. Cultivating good relations with theUnited States is important for a country that sees Washington’s support as essential for its security.
“President Trump said ‘you will win’,” Nawrocki told private broadcaster TV Republika. “I read it as a kind of wish for my success in the upcoming elections, and also awareness of it, and after this whole day I can say that the American administration is aware of what is happening in Poland.”
Nawrocki had attended the National Day of Prayer at the White House.
The White House posted pictures of the meeting in the Oval Office on X, which showed Trump and Nawrocki shaking hands and giving a thumbs up gesture to the camera.
The nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party backing Nawrocki has positioned itself as a vocal supporter of Trump, with its lawmakers chanting his name in the Polish parliament after he won reelection.
Current president and PiS ally Andrzej Duda was one of Trump’s preferred international partners during his 2017-2021 presidency and they have described themselves as friends.
Many Poles have been unnerved by the way in which Trump has upended U.S. foreign policy, and an Opinia24 poll for private broadcaster RMF FM in March showed 49% of respondents believed his actions were bad for Poland, against 29% viewing them positively.
Nawrocki is currently second in opinion polls, and is likely to face frontrunner Rafal Trzaskowski from the ruling Civic Coalition (KO) in a second round runoff on June 1, assuming no candidate wins more than 50% of votes in the first round.
Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, a KO member of the European Parliament was dismissive of the meeting’s significance.
“The president in Poland will be elected by Poles, not Trump and not Americans,” he told private broadcaster Polsat News.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
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