Right-of-center parties are surging across Europe – but it’s not your grandfather’s brand of buttoned-up, pro-market European conservatism that’s winning elections.

Today, the new European right is increasingly populist, “us-first” nationalistic, and unapologetically anti-elite.

The most recent example occurred last week in Poland, where populist firebrand Karol Nawrocki scored a dramatic upset of Rafał Trzaskowski, the liberal, pro-European Union mayor of Warsaw. Running on a pro-Trump, “Poland First” platform and representing the opposition Law and Justice party, Nawrocki will be sworn in as the country’s new president in August.

Nawrocki’s margin of victory was small – he won with 50.9% of the vote compared to 49.1% for the favored Trzaskowski – but it is still almost guaranteed to complicate the pro-European Union, pro-Ukraine agenda of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. 

Tusk, a former president of the European Council, defeated the Law and Justice candidate to come to power in 2023, despite charges that he was taking orders from elite forces in Berlin.

“I don’t know who your grandfathers were, but I know one thing: You are a German agent, just a German agent,” a co-founder of the Law and Justice party said to Tusk at the time.

In Poland, the president (soon to be Nawrocki) is the head of state who leads foreign policy and has the power to veto laws, while the prime minister (Tusk) is the head of government who is responsible for internal policies.

Nawrocki – a COVID-19-vaccine skeptic who believes the Russia-Ukraine war was sparked by “European elites” – last month visited Donald Trump at the White House, where the president predicted big things for the 42-year-old Polish historian.

“Trump ally wins in Poland, shocking all in Europe,” Trump wrote of Truth Social. “Congratulations, Poland, you picked a winner!”

Nawrocki’s victory is part of a continent-wide trend. He has said he stands with Hungary’s Viktor Orban, the long-time standard-bearer for European conservatives.

For years, Orban was often the lone right-wing voice in the European Union. But now he has plenty of company.

In Italy, right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – a U.S. ally who was the only European head of government to attend Trump’s inauguration – has headed the European Union’s third-largest economy for nearly three years.

Marine Le Pen, the head of France’s populist Rassemblement National, made such big gains in elections for the European Parliament a year ago that she forced President Emmanuel Macron to call snap elections to hold onto power.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party earlier this year reshaped the German political landscape by doubling its vote share in national elections and forcing new Chancellor Friedrich Merz to cobble together a fragile coalition that is already running into trouble.

Nationalist parties have also strengthened their positions in The Netherlands, and in the Nordic countries, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

Now, under Nawrocki, Poland will join this expanding group.

While these parties differ on some issues, they share many key themes. Among them are skepticism of the centralized authority of the European Union, seeing unfettered immigration as a threat to security and culture, the importance of national sovereignty, criticism of some issues related to gender and sexuality, and the importance of other Christian values. 

Regarding Ukraine, views vary, but they generally skew less supportive than the mainstream stance in Brussels.