Karol Nawrocki, President of Poland, told the audience that the Russian regime, which pretends to defend family values, is lying. This is extremely important. A poll by the Ukraine Freedom Project shows that 29 percent of Republican Party voters believe that “Russia is a country that promotes and supports traditional family values” – this is how Nawrocki’s speech at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was assessed by senior Republican official Steve E. Moore. In his view, Nawrocki is emerging as a “new star of conservatism in Europe.”
President Karol Nawrocki was one of the stars of this year’s CPAC conference in Texas. He was also the only sitting head of state participating in the event.
In his Saturday speech at CPAC, President Nawrocki pointed to the strong, freedom-based foundations of the Polish-American alliance, the false face of Russian “conservatism,” the weakening effect of bureaucracy on Europe, and hope for conservatives around the world.
The governing coalition in Poland is attempting to discredit the president’s participation in the conference in Texas. Leading the verbal attacks is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, who is, however, accused of acting out of personal and ambitious motives.
Two speakers who said Russia is not a friend of the United States
The reception of President Nawrocki’s speech among American conservatives is quite different. An interesting voice on the matter came from Steven Moore, a former senior Republican official in the United States House of Representatives, who has been involved in supporting Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in 2022 and is the founder of the Ukraine Freedom Project.
In a post on his blog, he noted that at this year’s CPAC “two speakers clearly stated that Russia is not a friend of the United States.”
As the first speaker, he pointed to Sara Makin, a former adviser to Donald Trump, who spoke about Russia’s aggression against religions other than the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
“Russians have bombed, shelled, or looted 650 religious sites. According to conservative estimates, 49 pastors, priests, and leaders of evangelical and other religious communities have been murdered in the occupied territories. The victims were tortured before death,” Makin said during CPAC.
The second speaker was Karol Nawrocki, President of Poland, “who told the audience that the Russian regime, which pretends to protect family values, is lying.”
“This is extremely important. A Ukraine Freedom Project poll shows that 29 percent of Republican voters believe that ‘Russia is a country that promotes and supports traditional family values’,” Moore wrote.
Nawrocki: A new European star of conservatism
The American assessed that Karol Nawrocki “is emerging as a new European star of conservatism, as the political career of Viktor Orbán appears to be coming to an end.”
“You will like Nawrocki more. Poland has chosen a response to the threat from Vladimir Putin – building the second-largest military force in Europe, after Ukraine, rather than being Putin’s poodle, like Orbán,” Steven E. Moore stated.
CPAC as a space for truth
In the further part of his commentary, he pointed to Moscow’s efforts to build a network of disinformation, as well as the harmful role among American conservatives of commentator and columnist Tucker Carlson, whom he called “the most well-known Putin fanboy.”
He noted that stickers reading “Tucker Carlson Hates Me” appeared at CPAC.
“Thank you to Matt and Mercedes Schlapp, the leaders and driving forces of CPAC, for providing space for the truth,” Moore wrote.
He assessed that the conservative infosphere in the United States has for years been dominated by Russian messaging, and that “conservatives hear only negative information about Ukraine.” He added that Ukrainian or pro-Ukrainian voices rarely broke through in conservative media in the U.S., appearing more often in outlets that conservative voters were less likely to follow.