Patriots or Traitors? The Polish Diaspora in Polish Presidential Elections

“Polonia in the USA: They treat the elections in Poland like the elections in the USA; They do not know the language, and even more so the traditions; Trumpoids.” 

It was the evening of June 1, and I had been checking X to see updates on the 2025 Polish Presidential Election. That post, from which the excerpt above was taken, was hard to swallow. 

I have always been proud to be a first generation American, born in New Jersey to two Polish immigrants that in the mid-1980s escaped the oppression of Wojciech Jaruzelski’s socialist government that adhered to Soviet Moscow. I may have lived in the tri-state area and had an American education, but I was raised, disciplined, and loved in a traditional, Polish Catholic household. I terrified kids on the preschool playground with my mother-tongue as I was unable in my formative years to differentiate the two languages in my mind. I reluctantly missed birthday parties for Saturday Polish School that began at 8:45am on the dot. I never attended summer camp as I would be swept away straight after my June dance recitals to my grandparents in either the Mazowieckie Region or the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship for our three-month school break. I had double celebrations so that my whole family in Poland could be involved, splitting my first Communion between Secaucus and Warsaw. My classmates teased me relentlessly for my pronunciation of words and choice of lunch, and I was constantly questioned by friends on my parent’s strict rules and devotion to Sunday mass. 

I am, quite frankly, the poster-child of the Polish diaspora; a split, foreign identity with an intense, patriotic adoration for Poland and its culture. 

Yet, the 2025 Polish Presidential election awoke deep, aching tensions between citizens that live in Poland proper, and those who reside abroad in various Polonia groups. In fact, multiple politicians on the left and right have underlined this divide, by asking those who left Poland to return. In January, Poland’s Foreign Ministry posted a plea on their website to Poles living abroad, “We hope that a prospect of living in a safe and dynamically developing country will also encourage Polish expats to return to Poland.”

There are roughly 20 million people of Polish ancestry living around the world. Evidence suggests that large-scale migration of ethnic Poles did not occur until the nineteenth century, when Poland was partitioned and occupied by Imperial Russia, Prussia, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. For the next 220 years, most Poles fleeing their country would be either political or economic emigres, with a dramatic uptick in economic migration in the 1990s due to Finance Minister Leszek Balcerowicz’s ‘shock therapy’ that was an aggressive reform program aimed at dismantling the communist economy. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Scandinavia, France, Ireland, and Australia were and continue to be popular destinations for migrating Poles. 

Today, about 8 million Polish descendants call the United States their home, with a jarring estimate of only 600,000 able to speak the language. More than 43,000 were registered to vote in the Polish presidential election, a majority living in Chicago and New York. 

Almost 500,000 global Polonia voters participated in the first round of the 2025 election, with an additional 200,000 registered for the second round. 

While the Polish diaspora in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America favoured the centrist, KO (Civic Coalition) backed nominee, Rafał Trzaskowski, the Polonia in the USA and Canada overwhelmingly voted for the nationalist-populist candidate, supported by PiS (Law and Justice), Karol Nawrocki. 

Nawrocki, former director of Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance with a PhD in history and a strange background of amateur boxing, ties to the Gdańsk underworld of gangsters and prostitution, illegal football hooliganism, and a controversial housing deal with a sick, elderly man, won the election with less than two percentage points, in the tightest election since the fall of Communism. He received a nameless shoutout on TruthSocial from America’s own radical populist president, Donald Trump, who screen-grabbed a NewsMax article headline that labeled Nawrocki a ‘Trump Ally’ and commented, “Congratulations Poland, you picked a WINNER!”, to which Nawrocki responded: “Thank you, Mr. President. Strong alliance with the USA, as well as partnership based on close cooperation are my top priorities. @POTUS.” 

For a while, it was humorously uncertain how well Trump remembered Nawrocki from his extremely brief photo op in the White House in early May, however Polish Trump supporters fabricated the quick meeting into a momentous occasion. When multiple MAGA influencers and campaigners appeared in Jasionka, Poland at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) a week prior to the second round of the election to remind Poles to ‘fight against globalism’ and ‘Marxism’, it became clear that the Trump administration did have an interest in Poland’s new president. The CPAC meeting reached its peak when US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took the stage to speak ill of Trzaskowski and formally endorsed Nawrocki. In English, she took a lightly threatening tone and told the audience, “If you (elect) a leader that will work with President Donald J. Trump, the Polish people will have an ally strong that will ensure that you will be able to fight off enemies that do not share your values.” 

As seen in other recent elections, such as in Germany, Romania, and especially in the United States, electoral interference and single-nation allegiance has been a hot topic. In the beginning of May, hard-right and ultranationalist Romanian presidential candidate George Simion accused the Moldovan government of ‘immense fraud’, due to the early voting polls indicating his centrist rival Nicușor Dan was in the lead. Unlike the rest of the Romanian diaspora which firmly supported Simion, Moldova’s Romanian citizens and those voting in Romania proper, tipped the scales in Dan’s favor, ultimately electing the centrist instead of the populist. 

Like in Romania, there was a record voter turnout in Poland; close to 73% of those registered voted. The Polish diaspora vote made up about 3.3%. While seemingly a small number, it is significant enough to put a dent into the elections. Because of the extremely rigid race, many Poles turned to social media to express their outrage. One of their main victim groups were those in the diaspora. 

Accusations of ‘running away’ from national issues instead of struggling through them, not understanding nor caring about daily Polish life, treating the country as a joke, not being a ‘proper patriot’ due to their foreign address, and many more insults were peppered with derogatory names and curse words. It did not matter whether the Pole had fled decades earlier when Poland was still a Soviet satellite state, or whether they had immigrated after Poland joined the European Union in 2004 in search for a stable job. Unless they wanted to return to the ojczyzna (fatherland) and live side by side with their fellow countrymen, they should not have a vote.

Hatred toward Polonia in the USA boiled over when it became clear on Monday morning, June 2, that Nawrocki had officially become the president-elect. “How I f*cking hate them!” was echoed on post after post. Ashamed, I thought back to the X tweet I had seen on Sunday, calling Polish Americans Trumpoids with no connection to the homeland. It did not describe myself nor my parents, but it still brought a glow of red to my face.

There is nothing that indicates any changes to be made in regards to diaspora voting laws any time soon. Especially now, boosted by the North American support he received, I could not imagine Nawrocki turning away from Polonia abroad. Additionally, the centrist and moderately liberal KO still controls the Sejm, which according to the Polish constitution douses the powers of the President. They certainly consider the diaspora a major contribution to Poland.  

Neither I nor my parents voted in this election, though we had all been in Poland during the first round. Our decision was not strategic, but the response of angry Poles had made me stop and think about whether our votes would be fair. 

Poland is home to us just like America is. 

But is the emotional, cultural, and ethnic bond to the country enough to allow me to partake in major political decisions that affect my family members but not me personally?

I don’t think I will ever truly know.

Illustration by Will Allen/Europinion