European nationalist parties' East-West division in approaching Trump

Nationalist parties across Western Europe have begun to distance themselves from the US president’s foreign policy rhetoric following his recent threats over Greenland and other moves that were widely seen as coercive toward allies. On NATO’s eastern flank, however, reactions have been far more restrained. Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) has largely avoided direct criticism of Washington, reflecting what can be described as a fundamentally different security mindset shaped by geography and history.

Nationalist movements that place sovereignty at the core of their politics have been unsettled by US President Donald Trump’s willingness to pressure allies. In France, Germany and Britain, far-right leaders have openly criticised his statements, framing them as an unacceptable challenge to national independence. Further east, the response has been more muted, according to an article by TVP World.

Leaders in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have tended to hedge or stay silent, while PiS fits squarely into this broader eastern pattern and expresses it most clearly, the article argues.

The Polish outlet contends that, in the eyes of PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, threats to Polish sovereignty emanating from a more federalised European Union and perceived German dominance are far more immediate than any territorial ambitions voiced by Washington toward far-off Greenland. That strategic calculation, the article notes, is increasingly difficult to defend as Trump’s recent actions challenge principles that nationalist parties traditionally uphold.

Trump’s remarks on Greenland, his military operation in Venezuela, and his suggestion that European NATO troops had stayed back from the frontline in Afghanistan have all sparked criticism in Western Europe.

Jordan Bardella, president of France’s National Rally and leader of the country’s largest far-right party, described Trump’s pledge to seize Greenland as “a direct challenge to the sovereignty of a European country.”

In Germany, Alice Weidel, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), said in Berlin that Trump had “violated a fundamental campaign promise” not to interfere in other countries.

Even Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s Reform UK and a longtime Trump ally, called it “a very hostile act” for a US president to threaten “tariffs unless we agree he can take over Greenland” without securing “the consent of the people of Greenland.”

The article recalls that Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who leads the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, also shared this sentiment, eventually telling Trump in a phone call that his Greenland threats were “a mistake.”

On NATO’s eastern flank, the tone was notably different. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, often described as Trump’s closest European ally, avoided the Greenland issue altogether. “It’s an in-house issue,” Orbán said. “It’s a NATO issue.”

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš warned against letting the dispute escalate, though he said Trump’s comments about Afghanistan were “way off the mark,” noting that 14 Czech soldiers had died there.

Slovakia’s Robert Fico, whose left-leaning but populist SMER party leads the government, stayed silent on Greenland but condemned the US operation in Venezuela as “kidnapping” and “the latest American oil adventure.”

The TVP World analysis argues that leaders in Central and Eastern Europe have chosen to hedge rather than confront Washington because they do not want to jeopardise relations with the United States. The difference, the article stresses, lies in threat perception. Countries on NATO’s eastern flank, particularly those bordering Russia or Belarus, view security through the prism of proximity to Russian military power and rely heavily on US troops, intelligence, military hardware and nuclear guarantees in ways Western European states do not.

Among the region’s major right-wing parties, PiS articulates this logic most explicitly, according to the article. Asked about Greenland, Jacek Sasin, a former deputy prime minister and senior PiS figure, emphasized that “the USA is our strategic ally” and urged against emotional reactions because “some small country has some problems” and “felt offended” by an ally’s behaviour.

Sławomir Cenckiewicz, head of the presidential National Security Bureau under PiS-aligned President Karol Nawrocki, said he came from “a different school” than one that would make him “fight for the freedom of Greenlanders.” He argued that if Poland recognizes the US alliance as strategic, “we must be consistent” and not “enter into conflict with American interests.”

“For PiS, Greenland is an abstraction. Russia is not. The party has concluded that maintaining American commitment to Poland’s security requires avoiding confrontation with Trump, even when his actions contradict the sovereignty principles PiS claims to defend at home,” the article concludes.

According to the analysis, this approach is reinforced by a deeper suspicion of the European Union itself, as PiS views Brussels and Berlin as a greater long-term threat to Polish sovereignty than Washington.

By Nazrin Sadigova