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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Polish political leaders have reacted to the results of Tuesday’s US midterm elections, in which the Democrats won control of both houses of Congress from President Donald Trump’s Republicans.
The outcome received a positive reaction from Poland’s ruling coalition, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk declaring that “democracy won”. The response was more muted from the right-wing opposition and the office of conservative President Karol Nawrocki, who is a Trump ally.
🚨 🇺🇸 Tusk gives Trump some great advice. But will the US president listen?
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk urged the US president to seek compromises after the Republicans’ defeat and not to rely on vetoes as his main way of governing.
Trump had earlier threatened to become… pic.twitter.com/s3E6G5zIQT
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) November 4, 2026
Tusk addressed the election results on Wednesday afternoon local time at a press conference alongside his Czech counterpart, Andrej Babiš. “Today, democracy won in America,” said a smiling Tusk. “I love democracy; it is a beautiful thing.”
“As President Donald Trump himself said just after the election, the Democrats did a good job, and I really could not agree more with him this time,” added Tusk. “I hope that the result will stabilise the situation also in our region.”
Although the United States remains Poland’s most important security partner, Tusk’s government – a broad, pro-EU coalition that ranges from left to centre right – has at times had uneasy relations with the Trump administration.
It has been critical of Trump’s conciliatory approach towards Russia, his often tough stance on Ukraine, as well as his pursuit of US control over Greenland.
Meanwhile, the head of the parliamentary caucus of Tusk’s centrist Civic Coalition (KO) party, Zbigniew Konwiński, told broadcaster Polsat News that “personally, I was happy with the Democrats’ victory”.
“We know how Donald Trump behaves, how volatile he is in his political declarations, how he can sometimes put Ukraine in a more difficult position than Russia, so I would rather look for the positives in what happened,” said Konwiński.
“If we look at recent years, the more Democrats, the stronger the Democrats, the better for Poland,” he added.
.@Konwinski_PO: Cieszę się z wygranej Demokratów w USA, bo to lepszy scenariusz dla Polski. @marcinfijolek pic.twitter.com/gJ3TnlMn0l
— Graffiti_PN (@Graffiti_PN) November 4, 2026
The speaker of Poland’s parliament, Włodzimierz Czarzasty, who is also the leader of one of KO’s junior coalition partners, The Left (Lewica), has clashed with the US ambassador to Poland twice this year over Czarzasty’s criticism of Trump.
Today, Czarzasty shared and commented on a social media post by Trump, published in the wake of the Democrats’ victory, in which the US president showed an image of his signature red cap with the word “VETO” on it.
“Where have I heard this before?” wrote Czarzasty, referring to the fact that Nawrocki has vetoed a record number of bills passed by parliament, where Tusk’s coalition has a majority.
Czarzasty then went on to list a series of characteristics that he suggested both Trump and Nawrocki share, including “arrogance”, “lack of respect for women”, a “suspicious past”, “transactional exploitation of their position”, and “admiration for politicians with fascist tendencies”.
Skąd ja to znam? Arogancja. Buta. Nieuzasadniona pewność siebie. Brak szacunku dla kobiet ( a to popchnę jakąś dwojga nazwisk, a to zakpię prymitywnie). Dziwna przeszłość. Instrumentalne traktowanie dziennikarzy. Pieniądze za spotkania. Transakcyjne wykorzystywanie funkcji.… pic.twitter.com/ryT2BMOZb2
— Włodzimierz Czarzasty 📚📖 (@wlodekczarzasty) November 4, 2026
Nawrocki has closely aligned himself with Trump. During last year’s Polish presidential election campaign, Trump invited Nawrocki for a private meeting at the White House. His then-homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, visited Poland to endorse Nawrocki.
Nawrocki himself has not thus far commented on Tuesday’s midterm election results. However, Marcin Przydacz, the head of the president’s International Policy Bureau, did address the issue in a social media post.
“As predicted, in the US midterm elections voters decided on change,” wrote Przydacz. “Poland will continue its good cooperation with the US, because it is our ally, and collaboration is in our mutual interest.”
Przydacz also added that the results were “a reminder for Tusk” that “no government lasts forever”. In Poland, too, “the moment will come when voters will decide on change – and it might be quite soon”, added Przydacz, in a nod to next year’s Polish parliamentary elections.
Zgodnie z przewidywaniami w wyborach połówkowych w USA wyborcy zdecydowali o zmianie. Wcześniej wygrywali Republikanie, dziś Demokraci. Polska będzie kontynuować dobrą współpracę z USA, bo jest to nasz sojusznik, a kooperacja jest w naszym wspólnym interesie. O tym, kto sprawuje…
— Marcin Przydacz (@marcin_przydacz) November 4, 2026
Tusk’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, meanwhile, used the US election results to revive his long-running feud with Elon Musk, who is no longer part of the Trump administration but donated enormous amounts of money to support the Republicans agead of the midterms.
Last year, Musk and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio criticised Sikorski after he suggested that Musk had threatened Ukraine. In a post on his social media platform, X, Musk told Sikorski to “be quiet, small man”.
On Wednesday, Tusk shared a screenshot of a tweet he had published last year, after Musk left the Trump administration, in which Sikorski wrote: “See, big man, politics is harder than you thought.”
— Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) November 4, 2026
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
