Two events last week show the direction in which Poland is moving. On Dec. 15, during a visit to Kiev, Polish President Andrzej Duda promised financial, political and energy support for Ukraine. A few days later, on Dec. 19, people in Warsaw and other Polish cities protested the government's controversial appointment of five new judges to the Constitutional Court — the second protest over the issue in two weeks. These two events, though seemingly unrelated, suggest the beginning of a new political phase in the country that will be felt across Europe. After eight years under a business-friendly and pro-EU government, the Poles, exhausted with the existing establishment, voted for a nationalist administration in a general election in October . Some also believed the benefits of EU integration and economic liberalization were not equally distributed among the population.