London: A blunt rebuff to Donald Trump has sparked a diplomatic clash in Poland over the US president’s claim to bring peace to the world.
And it looks like a sign of bigger arguments to come.
European leaders are asserting their independence after a year of playing nice with the president, even if that triggers casual threats from Trump’s loyal supporters.
The dispute in Poland began when the Speaker of the nation’s parliament criticised Trump for using force to get his way, but it is now emerging as a key test of Europe’s willingness to speak out against its NATO ally.
Weeks after the stand-off over Trump’s stated ambition to take control of Greenland, some European politicians have had enough.
The Speaker, Wlodzimierz Czarzasty, went public with his reasons for rejecting a request from other parliamentary leaders – US House Speaker Mike Johnson and Israeli Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana – to jointly nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize later this year.
Trump took offence when he was not awarded the prize last year, and his supporters are trying to get European parliaments to back him this year for his role in getting a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
Czarzasty dismissed the idea that the Polish parliament, or Sejm, would back Trump’s claim to the prize.
“In my opinion, President Trump is destabilising the situation in these international organisations by representing the politics of force and using force to pursue a transactional policy,” he said.
“All of this means that I will not support President Trump’s Nobel Prize nomination because he doesn’t deserve it.”
The US ambassador to Poland, Tom Rose, took the unusual step of publicly rebuking the Speaker, and he escalated the argument on social media.
When one Polish patriot suggested on X that the country could not be pushed around by its powerful ally, Rose posted that the US could withdraw its troops.
Rose then put Czarzasty in the diplomatic deep freeze, while being careful not to sever ties with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the government.
“Effective immediately, we will have no further dealings, contacts, or communications with Marshal of the Sejm Czarzasty, whose outrageous and unprovoked insults directed against President Trump has made himself [sic] a serious impediment to our excellent relations with Prime Minister Tusk and his government,” Rose wrote.
Trump named Rose as his ambassador to Poland within weeks of becoming president again last year. Rose is a former journalist who co-hosted a nationwide conservative radio program and was previously director-general of The Jerusalem Post for eight years to 2005.
Czarzasty is a leader of the New Left party, part of a coalition that keeps Tusk in power, but he is countered by right-wing parties that tend to favour Trump.
Trump has strong support from Poland’s President, Karol Nawrocki, who told a radio station in January that the US president was the only world leader capable of stopping Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Tusk, however, has thrown shade at Trump in recent weeks.
First, he warned the ambassador to stop the attacks.
“Mr Ambassador Rose, allies should respect each other, not lecture each other,” Tusk posted on X. “At least this is how we, here in Poland, understand partnership.”
(Rose responded to that by complaining again about the “despicable, disrespectful and insulting” remarks from Czarzasty.)
Second, Tusk has spoken out against Trump over the president’s claim to Greenland.
“We respected and accepted American leadership,” Tusk said in Brussels when European Union leaders gathered on January 22 to discuss the dispute with Trump over the Arctic territory.
“But what we need today in our politics is trust and respect among all partners here, not domination and, for sure, not coercion. It doesn’t work in our world.”
While the dispute in Poland is especially heated, Tusk is not the only European leader signalling a firmer line against Trump following the Greenland rift.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claimed a win on Greenland by saying EU members used a “firm but non-escalatory” approach to reject the US position, saying she wanted to take the same approach in future.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb, one of Trump’s biggest friends in NATO, warned last week that Europe could no longer rely on America.
“The United States is an important ally for us. At the same time, we must be honest with ourselves and acknowledge that the United States is changing,” Stubb told the national parliament last Wednesday.
“What is also changing is the country’s attitude towards its allies and the way it engages in foreign policy. We have watched this happen first-hand over the past year.
“The foreign policy of the current US administration is based on an ideology that contradicts our own values, for example, in that it undermines the current international order. Increasingly, it involves operating outside international institutions. In the list of priorities for US foreign policy, Europe ranks behind the Western Hemisphere and the Asia Pacific region.
‘What we need today in our politics is trust and respect among all partners here, not domination and, for sure, not coercion.’
Polish PM Donald Tusk
“Our aim is for Europe to be a more equal and capable partner for the United States in the future. Capability also enables confidence. Unless backed up by power, strong statements ring hollow.”
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, on the other hand, gave a warm welcome to US Vice President JD Vance to the Winter Olympic Games in Milan on Friday.
It is impossible to make a sweeping generalisation about all European leaders and their attitude to Trump because the leaders are so different.
So, while some assert more independence from America, others are side-by-side with Trump. This is a looming test for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is an outlier among European leaders. He takes a hard line against Ukraine, a soft line towards Putin and wins favour from Trump.
Orbán gained a gift from Trump last Thursday: a call to Hungarians to vote for him and his party at the national elections due in April.
“I was proud to ENDORSE Viktor for Re-Election in 2022, and am honoured to do so again,” Trump wrote.
“Viktor Orbán is a true friend, fighter, and WINNER, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election as Prime Minister of Hungary.”
Will that help Orbán? He is behind in the polls, but he shows no sign of trying to put some distance between himself and the US president.
Others, however, are making their choice with Trump. They tried to befriend him. Now, some of them do not mind if they offend him.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.