Poland’s image in the United States is so good that the dispute over the Constitutional Tribunal does not have to do lasting damage to it, as long as politicians quickly find a way out of the crisis instead of escalating it, former U.S. Ambassador to Poland Daniel Fried told PAP.
He noted that the narrative of a “coup” is being widely spread by “MAGA channels.”
Fried, a longtime diplomat and an expert at the Atlantic Council think tank, said that since Friday afternoon he has been flooded with calls from journalists and other experts asking “what is going on in Poland.”
“We Americans are absorbed in our own politics, but this matter has generated a lot of interest,” he said. He added that the context of that interest is not positive. Although he believes the government is in the right on the substance of the Constitutional Tribunal dispute, he does not understand why the authorities chose this method and this moment to act, given the international situation.
He said that he himself would have waited to settle the issue until Putin loses in Ukraine and Donald Trump is no longer president. He also noted that the row is erupting while the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting is under way in Atlanta, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been arguing for Poland’s participation in the group of the world’s largest economies.
According to Fried, the government has been put on the defensive because it has not effectively presented its case. Meanwhile, he noted, the right-wing opposition quickly spread its own narrative in the MAGA community, which responded to it.
Even so, Fried described the statement by U.S. Ambassador to Poland Tom Rose, which calls on both sides to de-escalate and declares noninterference in Poland’s affairs, as “positive and solid.”
He added, however, that if he had been editing it, he would have changed the sentence suggesting that the government is using state power to change the Tribunal’s composition, because it omits the president’s refusal to swear in the judges.
In his view, the statement is nevertheless a “much better starting point” for the U.S. government than partisan declarations of a coup, which could come from people in Trump’s circle.
The former diplomat expressed hope that the dispute will be settled quickly, pointing out that the matter damages Poland’s reputation, which has been very good in the United States in recent years.
“I don’t think the damage is irreversible, because Poland’s image is so good that people are asking themselves: This kind of thing happens in Poland?” Fried said.
He stressed that in recent years Poland has had “fantastic” press in the U.S., and that the further consequences of the crisis depend on how it ends.
“If an agreement is reached, people will say: ‘Polish politics can be exciting, but the Poles know how to get out of trouble.’ And I will be emphasizing that very strongly myself,” he said.
The former ambassador noted that President Nawrocki has met with Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. He speculated that the leader of the People’s Party could play the role of intermediary in resolving the conflict. He also voiced hope that Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski would play the role of negotiator after returning from Atlanta:
“He is a party politician, but he knows how to negotiate a deal,” he said.
From Washington, Oskar Górzyński (PAP)
