WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is not known for backing down, but the Europeans are coming to Washington anyway to see if they can convince him to rein in his trade policies.

Less than two weeks after calling the European Union a “foe,” Trump will meet with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker at the White House on Wednesday. The sit-down comes as the 28-country bloc is fuming about the administration’s decision to slap hefty tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, and is hoping to dissuade the president from imposing new tariffs on imported cars.

Juncker has been one of Europe’s most vocal critics of Trump’s trade policies. In March, he called the president’s aluminum and steel tariffs “stupid.” Warning that Europe would retaliate with tariffs on U.S. products, he added, “We can also do stupid.”

Former officials expect Wednesday’s White House meeting to be tense.

“The negotiating view of Donald Trump is unconditional surrender of the other side,” said Ivo Daalder, who served as the U.S. ambassador to NATO during the Obama administration. “If you’re a betting person, it’s not going to be a great meeting.”

The president, for his part, has shown little interest in rolling back his trade policies. He campaigned on an aggressive trade platform and he is reluctant to waver publicly, for fear of angering his supporters.

“You have to see these trade deals I’m working on, they are a disaster,” Trump said on Tuesday during a speech in Missouri. “We’re losing hundreds of billions of dollars with individual countries a year. And you’ve got to stick it out. You’ve got to fight it. Nobody else fought it.”

Earlier in the day, he tweeted: “Tariffs are the greatest! Either a country which has treated the United States unfairly on Trade negotiates a fair deal, or it gets hit with Tariffs. It’s as simple as that — and everybody’s talking! Remember, we are the “piggy bank” that’s being robbed. All will be Great!”

And after returning to the White House from Missouri on Tuesday night, the president posted on Twitter: “The European Union is coming to Washington tomorrow to negotiate a deal on Trade. I have an idea for them. Both the U.S. and the E.U. drop all Tariffs, Barriers and Subsidies! That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade! Hope they do it, we are ready — but they won’t!“

Republicans in Congress and some of Trump’s own advisers are hoping he won’t move forward with the auto tariffs, arguing that they would greatly harm the U.S. economy and cost American jobs.

Trump’s trade agenda is already having negative effects, especially in the U.S. agriculture sector. And in an apparent acknowledgment of the fallout from Trump’s policies, the administration is planning to announce on Tuesday about $12 billion in aid to farmers hurt by retaliatory tariffs from China, the EU and other countries.

Trump and Juncker have had several interactions over the last 18 months — and they’ve often been tense. One person who tracks European politics closely said Juncker “doesn’t suffer fools lightly.” Juncker, like other world leaders, was exasperated by Trump’s critiques of the European Union on trade during the June G7 summit in Canada, according to a person familiar with the meeting.

European officials say they are unsure exactly what to expect when Trump and Juncker sit down on Wednesday, and they initially feared the U.S. president might snub Juncker or give him just a few minutes of his time. But the two men are slated to sit down for a one-on-one meeting, followed by an expanded meeting with officials from Europe and the United States.

While European officials insist that Wednesday’s meeting won’t be a negotiating session, Juncker will nonetheless come prepared to discuss two proposals aimed at de-escalating the tensions between the EU and the United States — in exchange for a commitment to lift the steel and aluminum tariffs and exempt Europe from any future auto tariffs.

One idea Juncker will raise Wednesday will be for the United States, the EU, Japan, South Korea and other nations that are significant makers of autos and auto parts to negotiate a “plurilateral” agreement aimed at reducing tariffs on those products to zero, according to a senior European official.

The second idea Juncker will raise would be to negotiate a limited free-trade agreement between the United States and the EU focused only on industrial tariffs, the official said. Under such a pact, the U.S. and the EU could eliminate tariffs on each other’s auto exports, but they wouldn’t be obliged to provide duty-free treatment for other countries.

Trump’s tough trade talk has often perplexed foreign officials. “I went to some of the countries, I said, ‘How did it get so imbalanced?’ They said ‘Nobody ever called.’ They said ‘nobody ever called.’ They do whatever they wanted and we just put up with it. Not any longer,” Trump said during his speech in Missouri Tuesday.

In the EU’s view, bilateral trade between the United States and the EU is largely in balance, despite Trump’s complaints about the U.S. goods trade deficit with the EU, which totaled $151 billion last year.

However, the U.S. had about a $55 billion trade surplus in services trade with the EU, and American firms doing business in Europe earned about $95 billion more in net income than European firms operating in the United States, the senior EU official said.

In that regard, a big part of Juncker’s task will be simply to try to better understand what Trump is asking the EU to do, the European official said.

“We’re still trying to figure out what the question is, so we can get the right answer,” he said.

The EU is willing to enter into negotiations with the United States to address bilateral trade concerns on both sides of the Atlantic, as it was doing with the Obama administration in talks on the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the senior European official said.

But if Trump wants the EU to take some specific efforts to reduce the bilateral trade deficit, he’s likely to be disappointed because there’s not a lot the EU can do to address that concern, the official said.

Neither European officials nor members of Trump’s own administration know whether the president is open to negotiating with Juncker. ”The fundamental political question is whether Trump wants to reach an agreement or does he see a political benefit to stoking a sense of aggrievement with the rest of the world between now and the midterm election,” said Jeffrey Rathke, the deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Empire creator Lee Daniels blames Jussie Smollett for the cancellation of the hit TV show and has cut him out of his life.

In a lengthy interview with Vulture, Daniels is asked: “It was a little surprising to learn that Fox was ending Empire. Do you think the Jussie situation played a part in that decision?”

Without any apparent hesitation, Daniels answers, “Certainly, that played a major part.”

Although he refused to say he Smollett is outright lying about being the victim of a hate crime, Daniels did admit to being “beyond embarrassed” for initially believing him and that he does “doubt” Smollett’s now-debunked story about being the victim of two white, racist and homophobic Donald Trump supporters last January:

“Of course, there’s some doubt. I’m telling you that because I love him so much. That’s the torture that I’m in right now, because it’s literally if it were to happen to your son and your child, how would you feel? You would feel, Please, God, please let there be that glimmer of hope that there is some truth in this story.” Daniels continued. “That’s why it’s been so painful. It was a flood of pain.”

You can certainly understand why someone would want to hold on to a glimmer of hope regarding a friend in this situation, but just as telling is when Daniels describes how the Smollett affair ate up so much of his time, energy, and creative spirit — to a point where it appears as though Daniels has cut off all contact with Smollett.

“I had to detach myself and stop calling [Smollett],” Daniels admits, “because it was taking away the time I have for my kids, the time I have for my partner. It was affecting my spirit and other shows, everything.”

Daniels also says he barely had the time to read the coverage of the scandal because he was “too busy putting out fires.”

It is not difficult to read between the lines here. Daniels has already announced that Smollett is fired, that he will not be invited back for Empire’s sixth and final season. And since he obviously believes Smollett’s depraved hoax cost him his TV show, and all the money, power, and professional prestige that comes with having a network show on the air, Daniels has every right to fire Smollett and kick him out of his life.

There is simply no question Smollett’s hate crime hoax devastated Empire’s ratings. Sure, the show was already showing its age in the ratings, but the Smollett thing buried it forever.

Later in the interview, Daniels accuses Fox TV of racism, but doesn’t blame racism for the cancellation of Empire:

Throughout the Smollett affair, I speculated about the massive disruption this scandal must have had on the Empire production and that those behind it had to be worried about how Smollett’s behavior would undermine the show’s legacy. How could it not?

And let’s not forget that just prior to the hate crime hoax, Smollett received a threatening letter filled with white powder. Thankfully, the powder was harmless, but many now believe Smollett sent the letter to himself. Either way, it was sent to the Empire studio, which must have resulted in chaos, maybe even a temporary and very expensive suspension of production.

According to various reports the feds are looking into the letter. The city of Chicago is also suing Smollett for all the expense that went into investigation the hoax, some $130,000.

Unlike Smollett’s career, this scandal is far from over.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.

MECHELEN, Belgium — European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager spent Thursday taking notes. But it wasn’t Apple’s Tim Cook, Gazprom’s lawyers, or the Trump administration that had the attention of Brussels’ most powerful official.

Instead, the liberal Danish politician was paying careful attention to youth and social workers in a former industrial lot.

What drew Vestager to ditch her competition lawyers and economists to hang out with the liberal mayor of the Belgian city of Mechelen, and an entourage of his officials?

Officially, she wanted to know how Mechelen went from a symbol of post-industrial decay to a thriving city of 138 nationalities.

She wanted to know how the city of 80,000 came to accommodate more Muslims than Hungary, and reduce child poverty while also requesting extra Syrian refugees.

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The 2019 European election subtext was clear enough.

With French President Emmanuel Macron — a liberal in search of a Europe-wide political family — hinting at support for a Vestager European Commission presidency, and many in her own party pressuring her to run, the commissioner’s Mechelen trip looked very much like pre-candidate activity.

Will she run in 2019? “I don’t know. And that is the truth of it,” she told POLITICO’s EU Confidential podcast.

Vestager said the outcome of debates to settle on a vision for EU reform “matter more than who’s going to make it come true.”

Vestager’s path to the Commission presidency would not be straightforward. She would need backing from the Danish government, which doesn’t seem keen to give her another term in Brussels. The liberal ALDE alliance has little chance of coming first in the European Parliament election so its candidate would not be in pole position for the job. And she may have too much star power to win the endorsement of national leaders, who do not like to be upstaged.

But she has emerged as one of the leading lights in the current Commission and would bring plenty of energy and charisma to the top EU job as the bloc seeks a post-Brexit renaissance.

Echoes of Hillary

If Vestager talked like a cautious potential candidate to EU Confidential, to the room in Mechelen, in front of social workers, local activists and the team of Mayor Bart Somers, she took turns at being both teacher and student, searching to connect. There were echoes of Hillary Clinton in her approach to the meetings.

When a social worker explained the benefits of hands-on activities with client families, like washing dishes together, Vestager buzzed with encouragement: “Everyone knows you have great talks while doing dishes.”

When dialogue was pitched as the key to making youth outreach effective, Vestager took the chance to state that Brussels should never give up dialogue with Poland and Hungary over concerns about the rule of law.

Speaking later in her office at the Commission’s headquarters, Vestager said that while she agrees there remain “systemic threats to the rule of law” in Poland and Hungary, she’s determined that Brussels should not impose a narrow view of rule of law on EU member countries. “Dialogue is still a possibility,” she said, emphasizing that “rule of law can be achieved in a number of different ways.”

When asked what might be done together between Brussels, Budapest and Warsaw to find common ground, Vestager said, “I think that very often people have a point. And if you listen very carefully you can figure out what is really being discussed here; what are the concerns; from where comes the frustration that has turned into anger that has turned into confrontation.”

“This is not something that will happen in a week or in a month. This is a long haul,” she added.

Vestager presents herself as a kind of anti-bureaucrat, seeing government systems as a lever for change, not an end in themselves.

“Mayors are kind of my heroes because they are hands-on people. They are accountable. They are held responsible for very specific things,” she said. In other words, they deliver rather than lecture, a frequent criticism of Brussels.

“What I feel myself and I think most people feel like this: You don’t like to be told [what to do], you don’t like to be treated like just someone in a group. You don’t want other people to live your life for you.”

Suspecting the divide between Brussels and local communities remains as great as ever, Vestager is throwing her weight behind Macron’s program of discussions with citizens, which comes to Brussels May 5 and 6, before an EU-wide rollout May 9.

“I think is a great idea” she said, “because, coming from Denmark, you know we have had a number of experiences where the wisest of people have designed a new treaty” only for voters to reject it. “I think this completely different approach to say ‘well what do we really want?’ and then discuss that, I think that’s very promising.”

This article is part of POLITICO’s new coverage of competition, antitrust and state aid issues, launching soon. Email [email protected] to request a complimentary trial.

Prince Harry says he and his wife, the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle, will have no more than two children because of the concerns they have for the environment.

“We are the one species on this planet that seems to think that this place belongs to us, and only us.” Prince Harry said in an interview of ethologist Dr Jane Goodall for the September issue of British Vogue.

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Prince Harry Duchess Markle welcomed a baby boy in May.

The September issue of British Vogue was guest-edited by Markle, and has been rocked by controversy. The cover features 15 women who are “raising the bar for equality, kindness, justice, and open-mindedness.” But Markle is being accused of copying a cover of a book she reportedly helped produce called The Game Changers by Samantha Brett and Steph Adams. about three years before guest editing Vogue’s Forces of Change issue, and it also uses a grid cover with black-and-white photos.

Markle is expected to interview former First Lady Michelle Obama for the magazine.

Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

The European Commission and European External Action Service will recall all British diplomats working in EU embassies around the world no later than September 2019, according to a letter obtained by POLITICO.

Martin Selmayr, the Commission’s secretary-general, and Helga Schmid, who has the same job at the EEAS, wrote to U.K. staff on July 27 to break the news.

Ambassadors and other senior British officials working for the EU will “have to return to Headquarters by 29 March 2019.” More junior staff will be able to time their return to Brussels to coincide with the EEAS’ annual staff rotation in September.

The good news for EU diplomats with a British passport is that they’ll get to keep their jobs in nearly all cases.

Selmayr and Schmid said they were aware that Brexit has “created a lot of uncertainty and anxiety for our staff with UK nationality.”

They said their institutions would “make a generous and transparent use of the exceptions provided by Article 47 of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants” — that’s the article allowing them to terminate the contracts of staff who cease to be citizens of an EU member country.

Selmayr and Schmidt wrote that “in specific cases such as conflicts of interests or because of international obligations,” British staff may be let go.

As expected, temporary and contract staff in EU embassies will lose their jobs if they have only British nationality. Likewise, U.K. nationals will no longer be recruited to EU embassies.

The new policy clarifies a position first outlined by European commissioner for human resources Günther Oettinger in January, and later by all commissioners in March.

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Arrested Development star Jason Bateman joined the plethora of Hollywood figures who have pledged to boycott Republican-controlled states that attempt to pass legislation putting restrictions on abortion.

In recent weeks, states including Alabama and Georgia have passed legislation restricting access to abortion, with the state of Georgia introducing a “heartbeat” bill that will make the procedure illegal for physicians after six weeks of pregnancy.

“If the ‘heartbeat bill’ makes it through the court system, I will not work in Georgia, or any other state, that is so disgracefully at odds with women’s rights,” Jason told The Hollywood Reporter, in an article complaining that the entertainment industry is not doing enough to fight back against the proposals.

Bateman’s comments are particularly notable given that his Netflix show Ozark and HBO show The Outsider are currently filming in Georgia, suggesting he may have to pull out or force them to re-film part of the series.

Jason Bateman in Ozark (Tina Rowden/Netflix, 2017)

However, Bateman’s pledge aligns him with the over 100 industry figures who signed an open letter threatening to boycott the state over the legislation, a list that also includes the likes of Alyssa Milano, Judd Apatow, and Alec Baldwin.

The 50-year-old actor is not known for overt political activism, but did attract headlines last year after defending his co-star Jeffrey Tambor over his alleged bullying of actress Jessica Walter. Bateman later apologized for his remarks, saying he was “incredibly sorry” to be seen as excusing his behavior.

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at [email protected].

Jurgen Klopp’s side went down 1-0 at Atletico Madrid and are up against it to reach the quarter-finals and extend their defence of the title

Liverpool are underdogs to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League after falling to a 1-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their last-16 clash.

Saul Niguez’s early goal gave Diego Simone’s side a deserved victory in the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano – the stadium where Liverpool won last season’s Champions League – and leaves the tie finely poised.

Although there is only a one-goal deficit for the reigning European champions to overturn, the lack of away goal means that bet365 make Jurgen Klopp’s side 10/11 (1.91) in the ‘to qualify’ market.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The strongmen are rampaging across the world stage with impunity, and they know it.

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Only moments after European Council President Donald Tusk used a news conference to urge G20 leaders to address Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and Saudi Arabia’s evident disregard for human rights, video footage of the leaders’ arrivals showed Russian President Vladimir Putin slapping hands in jovial fashion with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as they took their seats for the summit’s opening session.

It was a striking display of locker-room camaraderie between the two vilified tough guys — Putin, the former KGB agent who has been Russia’s supreme leader for just shy of two decades, and the young monarch who, according to Western and Turkish intelligence, ordered the killing and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

If Putin was feeling any concern about Tusk’s vow that Western economic sanctions against Russia would be extended yet again in January, he did not give the smallest hint of it. And if the crown prince was worried in the slightest about the international condemnation that he has faced in recent weeks, there was also no indication as he adjusted his gold-trimmed thawb and took his seat at the conference table.

Indeed, the only tough guy in Argentina who seems to be having the slightest trouble these days is U.S. President Donald Trump, who flew to Buenos Aires amid the latest blockbuster developments in special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian collusion with the Trump election campaign.

Still, Trump, while conceding nothing, signalled that the latest Mueller development remains very much on his mind.

The president glibly brushed aside the news with a dismissive tweet that declared, once again, his usual reply to Mueller’s investigation: “Witch hunt!”

In a twist, Trump, who has long admired powerful authoritarian leaders, finds himself shunning the very men that he has praised for exuding strength.

White House officials have been at pains to fill the president’s schedule to limit the possibility of a lengthy interaction with Putin or MBS. And aides were frustrated by reports — notably in state media in Saudi Arabia and Russia — that Trump is planning to hold an informal chat with Putin and that he met with MBS.

Trump on Thursday canceled his planned meeting with Putin, calling it a response to the military operations against Ukraine. In response, Putin’s spokesman noted that the Russian leader would have a couple of hours of extra time for “useful meetings” at the G20.

U.S. aides dismissed the Russian report of a Putin-Trump huddle being back on, arguing it is an effort by the Russians to save face after the cancelation. And they acknowledged that Trump “exchanged pleasantries” with MBS as he did with many other world leaders.

“We had no discussion. We had no discussion. We might. But we had none,” Trump said when asked about the report that he met with MBS.

Asked by a reporter whether he’s going to be exchanging pleasantries with Putin during the summit, Trump said, “I don’t know. Not particularly. I don’t know.”

Toothless West

For Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, the evident self-assuredness of the Russian and Saudi leaders highlights just how powerless the West has been in responding to what it views as grave transgressions of international norms.

“This is a difficult moment for international cooperation,” Tusk said at a joint news conference with Juncker. “I would like to appeal to the leaders to use this summit, including their bilateral and informal exchanges, to seriously discuss real issues such as trade wars, the tragic situation in Syria and Yemen and the Russian aggression in Ukraine. I see no reason why the G20 leaders shouldn’t have a meaningful discussion about solving these problems. Especially because all the instruments lie in their hands. The only condition is good will.”

Tusk, in an unsubtle jab at the Saudi prince, continued, “We also cannot underestimate other issues which remain difficult for some leaders, such as human rights, freedom of press and basic safety of journalists. It is our obligation, as the EU, to take this opportunity and press our partners to respect these basic principles.”

But the policy response so far has been weak. In a follow-up tweet, Tusk said European leaders are united in demanding a further investigation of what happened to Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.

Even as Tusk reiterated his belief that sanctions already in place against Russia would be extended, there was no announcement of any new punitive measures in response to the recent naval attack on Ukrainian ships in the Sea of Azov.

Apart from stern criticism, there has been no policy action by the EU. One senior official said that such responses are in the hands of national governments, as happened in Germany, which has banned arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

French President Emmanuel Macron interacted briefly with the Saudi prince, and made an effort to rebuke him.

A video of their encounter picked up the prince telling Macron “don’t worry” and the French president replying, “I do worry. I am worried.”

Later in the conversation Macron added, “You never listen to me.” And the prince replied, “I will listen, of course.”

Asked about the conversation, a French official told reporters that Macron had conveyed “a very firm” message.

Beyond the prince and the czar, the G20 summit as a whole was largely shaping up to be a sideline event to the bilateral trade negotiations between Trump and another strongman: Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The two are scheduled to meet over dinner on Saturday night in an effort to find a truce in their trade dispute. An all-out trade war between the U.S. and China would potentially set off a devastating domino effect, putting all of the economic powers at the summit under severe pressure.

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Hollywood Actress Rosanna Arquette is apologizing for being born white, saying she’s ashamed of the privilege she believes her skin brings.

“I’m sorry I was born white and privileged. It disgusts me. And I feel so much shame,” the Pulp Fiction actor said on Wednesday. 

It’s not clear exactly why the award-winning actress, whose net worth is estimated at about $9 million, announced her shame for being white. But the Crashing star is certainly no stranger to outrageous statements.

On Monday, Arquette posted a photo of herself kneeling in front of dozens a American flags. She captioned the tweet by saying, “I’ll never stand for the flag again.”

Actress Rosanna Arquette kneels in front of American flags. Arquette captioned her now-deleted tweet: “I’ll never stand for the flag again.”

When the Whole Nine Yards star isn’t denouncing her skin color and the American flag, she’s bashing the country and President Donald Trump. 

In March, Arquette said President Donald Trump is perpetuating a “sick dictatorship” and running “a government that has normalized racism rape, mass killings from Guns Pedophilia, homophobia.” She followed up that missive with another, lambasting U.S. immigration and border enforcement. “Children are sick and dying inside the cruel concentration camps in the united states of America this will be the trump administrations legacy.”

Rosanna Arquette isn’t the only blonde award-winning actress to wish she wasn’t white. In 2016, Actress Julie Delpy said she believes there’s “nothing worse than being a woman” in Hollywood and wished she were black instead.

“Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media,” the Oscar-winning star told The Wrap. “It’s funny—women can’t talk. I sometimes wish I were African American because people don’t bash them afterward.” Delpy later apologized.

This piece has been updated. Screenshots of Rosanna Arquette’s tweets have been added as they were deleted after publication.

Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the forthcoming book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know, from HarperCollins. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson

WARSAW — Poland’s new Wiosna party is expected to win about six of the European Parliament’s 751 seats in this Sunday’s election — but that’s enough to make it a very tempting morsel.

Frans Timmermans, the Socialist nominee to be the next European Commission president, has taken the lead in battling the nationalist Polish Law and Justice (PiS) party government over accusations that it is violating the EU’s democratic rules.

That, however, didn’t stop him from spending some of the campaign’s final hours in the Polish capital to woo Wiosna’s leader — 43-year-old Robert Biedroń.

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The two toured Warsaw on Tuesday in a tram as Timmermans shouted enthusiastically “Spring is coming!” — a play on the party’s Polish name, which means “spring.”

Timmermans is scrambling for every possible vote following a shift in fortunes for the conservative European People’s Party (EPP), which is giving Socialists hope that they may squeeze out a victory against their rivals for the first time in decades.

Although the EPP is predicted to win 171 seats versus 144 for the Socialists, the actual outcome could be much narrower.

Thanks to internal squabbles within the EPP over the democratic credentials of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz, Viktor Orbán’s party may quit the center-right bloc, which would deprive it of about 12 seats.

If that happens, and if France’s Socialists manage to get more than 5 percent of the vote (they’re hovering near that level), then Wiosna’s MEPs might be enough for Timmermans to claim victory.

“Now, we are neck and neck with the EPP,” Timmermans told reporters after serving hot dogs to Wiosna supporters at a Warsaw bar. “So something might be working.”

On Wednesday, Timmermans said his Socialist group and Wiosna would be “allies” in the next Parliament. Officials at Wiosna say the party has not made any formal decision to join the Party of European Socialists, as Biedroń wants to wait for the election results.

But the mood music was very chummy.

“Timmermans is Wiosna,” Biedroń told POLITICO. “He speaks the Spring language. He has the same values, and a similar program.”

The Wiosna leader has been compared to French President Emmanuel Macron, who upended French politics two years ago, but Biedroń cut himself off from the liberals — who are also hunting for extra votes in the European Parliament.

“France has it own path. Macron is a liberal, and I am not,” said Biedroń.

An enemy of PiS

Although Timmermans is public enemy No. 1 for PiS, which accuses him of unfairly targeting Poland for its controversial reforms to the country’s judicial system, he’s widely praised by the liberal urban voters who form the core of Wiosna’s support.

Timmermans vociferously rejects accusations that he’s anti-Polish — in the past pointing out that his father’s Dutch home town had been liberated by Polish troops during the war.

Standing in front of Poland’s Supreme Court on Wednesday, Timmermans told reporters that he would “keep fighting” to make sure that “the justice system remains independent.”

“This country, sadly, sadly, has a long history before it freed itself of judges deciding on the basis of a phone call from party central,” he said. “We do not want to go back to that history.”

Timmermans insisted that he is a “great friend of Poland,” and that he has battled Warsaw in order to ensure that Poland is not isolated within the bloc by refusing to follow its democratic rules.

“I have seen over the last three years that whatever happens, whatever fight I may have with the Polish government, the Polish people is with Europe. You belong to Europe!” he told cheering Wiosna supporters.

The Socialist leader also dove into the widening sexual abuse scandal shaking Poland’s Roman Catholic Church in the wake of an unsparing documentary looking at the victims of priests and how the church hierarchy tried to cover up the problem.

Biedroń tweeted that while in Warsaw, Timmermans, a Catholic, said that he had been the victim of sexual assault by a priest — something the Socialist candidate has spoken about in the past.

That will likely buttress Wiosna’s program of enforcing a strict separation between church and state; much of the church is currently closely allied with PiS.

A new party

Wiosna is a small part of a broader political battle in Poland. The main players are PiS and the European Coalition, a grouping of five parties led by Civic Platform, the centrist party once headed by European Council President Donald Tusk.

POLITICO estimates that PiS will take 22 of Poland’s 51 seats, while the European Coalition will get 20 — 17 of which will go the EPP while three will go to the Socialists.

Wiosna has come under fire from the rest of the opposition for weakening the combined anti-PiS forces when Biedroń refused to join the coalition.

The European election is being treated as a prelude to Poland’s national elections this fall, with parties hoping that a good result this Sunday will boost their chances later in the year.