JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
After Friday's contentious meeting in the Oval Office between President Trump, Vice President Vance and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, the White House was sent a letter. The author received the Nobel Peace Prize and is a pro-democracy hero in Poland. As NPR's Central Europe correspondent Rob Schmitz reports, the letter expressed to the Trump administration what the Polish government cannot.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: The letter begins with your excellency Mr. President, but that's where the honorifics end. It goes on to compare Trump and Vance's treatment of Zelenskyy to interrogations by political police under communist Poland, and it demands more respect for a leader whose soldiers are shedding blood to defend the free world. We do not understand, the letter says, how the leader of a country that is a symbol of the free world cannot see that. The author is Lech Walesa, former leader of Poland's Solidarity movement, the first Democratically elected president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his leadership in opposing communist rule. His letter was signed by dozens of other former Polish political prisoners.
ANDRZEJ BOBINKSI: Nobody wants to say anything too vivid, too aggressive towards, you know, Donald Trump and the United States. So the only people who can do this are people who are now retired.
SCHMITZ: Andrzej Bobinski is managing director of the Warsaw-based journal Polityka Insight. He says the 81-year-old Walesa is able to voice an opinion many in Poland's political circles also possess but are too scared to say given Poland's close relationship with the U.S. and its historical antipathy towards Russia.
BOBINKSI: Donald Trump is way too lenient and way too friendly towards Vladimir Putin. And a number of people are really shocked and scared with where this is heading. On the other hand, nobody wants to alienate the United States. And I don't think anybody has come out outright and said that we don't want to be friends with the United States anymore.
SCHMITZ: Certainly not Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, who made this statement after the Oval Office incident.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRIME MINISTER DONALD TUSK: (Speaking Polish).
SCHMITZ: "I know a narrative is being created, especially after that very strange Friday at the White House," said Tusk, "that would divide Europe and the United States. "We cannot allow that to happen," he said. Since the end of the Cold War, Poland has been one of America's closest allies in Europe, says Bobinski.
BOBINKSI: I think that's changing. The attitude is changing. There's a huge generational shift. And I think that, you know, by the end of Donald Trump's term, Poland will be in a very different place.
SCHMITZ: And Walesa's scathing letter, says Bobinski, is a sign of Poland turning away from its longtime friend. But where it will turn towards is an open question for Poland and for the rest of Europe.
Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Berlin. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
