The Americans were deciding on the future of their country, electing their president. At the same time they were deciding on our fate, the fate of Poland.

If Kamala Harris had won, the noose around the neck of Polish independence would have tightened even more. And our democracy might no longer be rescued; the march towards authoritarianism would have accelerated considerably. For the external intervention coming from Brussels and Berlin was complemented by Washington’s ostentatious approval of repressive measures against opposition forces. To put it symbolically, the US Ambassador Mark Brzezinski did not even try to hide that he did not want to bother with either a trampled constitution, political prisoners or thuggish methods of taking over independent or inconvenient institutions, including public media. I hope that he will quickly pass away and his successor will be a man who understands that in our country, too, ‘tolerant democrats’ are very often simply brutal murderers. Just like overseas.

Behind the mask of the current government’s official, smooth, ‘state’ statements there is a clear fear of ‘Trump 2.0’ entering the game - a politician who may prove to be a much more effective and powerful player than during his first term. This fear will not be covered up by the spells of the need to build an ‘even stronger’ Europe. This course simply means taking on an even shorter leash the weaker countries, those effectively being colonised or those already colonised, including, unfortunately, the current Poland.

The European Union will not build any ‘strategic sovereignty’, let alone a security-giving army, because it is itself built on flawed foundations, on violence and inequality. The only result of ‘deepening integration’ will be a new German empire. Whoever pushes our continent in this direction serves Berlin’s interests. The Germans, moreover, seem to take a special, perverse pleasure in casting the ‘elites’ of other countries as clappers of their ‘leadership’.

Fortune smiled on the Polish independence-democratic camp, but this gift, this opportunity, would not have happened if it were not for the personal greatness of Donald Trump, a man who has done things of unprecedented importance in recent American and world history. He came back, even though many considered him to be a political corpse. He miraculously survived the assassination attempt on his life; both in this particular case and throughout the campaign he showed wonderful resilience, perseverance, and bravery. He presented qualities which, under Polish conditions, distinguish only one politician on such a scale: Jarosław Kaczyński. It is a kind of unbelievable determination, will to fight, focus on the goal, political talent and also love for the homeland.

The political achievements of the President of the Law and Justice party are, by the way, decades ahead of those of the 47th President of the United States, although of course Poland is many times less important on the global stage than the superpower. There is an ongoing discussion in the United Right camp about the lessons of Trump’s triumph. Can a clear message, charisma and indefatigable energy overturn the anti-social, anti-national, oligarchic system of power in our country too? Should we take a risk and look for a great identity wave, rather than pragmatically skimming points among the aesthetically sensitive fickle voters who constitute a viable ‘centre’ in Poland? The answers to these questions will have consequences for the choice of the PiS candidate for president.

The answers are not simple, because although I believe that the policies of the Tusk government will sooner or later create a revolutionary situation, this is unlikely to happen at the time of the presidential election, but later, during the parliamentary election. The decay processes must take some more time. Besides, you can never give up that layer of politics that dictates addressing those issues that the people, not the elites of the political camp, consider really important.

Trump talked most about the economy and immigration, fought the hypocritical establishment, laced everything with elements of the culture war, but at the same time kept a close eye on the poles.

He won because he changed, he stabilised, and he listened to advisers and staffers. He won because of the good, thoughtful policies of a strong politician, not a frantic charge.

On 6 November a mighty spark of hope went out into the world. Hope that a great deal could still be salvaged from our civilisation, that all was not yet lost. And although the winner was an extraordinary, remarkable, sometimes irritating man, at the same time the winners were the most ordinary, normal people who care about their families and their homelands.

The losers were pride, arrogance, contempt, the ideological madness of mutant Marxism. They lost in the USA; they will lose in Poland too. There will yet be a Washington in Warsaw.

Well, maybe much sooner than we think.

Jacek Karnowski