With the victory of Mr Lech Kaczynski in Poland's presidential elections his populist right-wing Law and Justice Party has won a double endorsement from voters following its success in September's general elections.
Mr Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw who led the party last month have defeated the outgoing Social Democrats comprehensively on the basis of their response to issues of corruption and incompetence. Their more significant victory is over the neoliberal Civic Platform, and its presidential candidate Donald Tusk. He had strong support from the country's urban middle class on a platform of flat taxes, relatively secular values and improved relations with Germany, Russia and the European Union. Mr Kaczynski, in contrast, secured the backing of smaller farmers, industrial workers and traditionalist rural Catholics attracted by the Radio Maryja station (the Catholic hierarchy preferred Mr Tusk). He is sceptical about Europe, wants compensation from Germany for war damages and is suspicious of Russian interference in Poland.
Reconciling these differences will be difficult. But negotiations on a governing coalition between them are expected to conclude this week, with the Civic Platform getting the foreign ministry. This could reassure Poland's neighbours and the EU, even though the president has overall control of this area, as in defence and economic policy and can veto legislation. Poland's powerful bureaucracy will ensure overall continuity in its foreign policy, as will its interest in budgetary transfers from Brussels. But there will be anxiety in Berlin and Moscow about future relations with Poland, and satisfaction in Washington that its pro-American line will be reinforced.
Domestic policy will have much greater priority. Mr Kaczynski's party wants a new Polish constitution to promote traditional moral values and a reforming "fourth republic" based on a French-style presidential democracy to tackle endemic corruption. He wants to cut taxes, boost pensions and family benefits and tackle the 18 per cent jobless rate. He will certainly have a powerful platform to do this in a parliament with so little centrist or left-wing representation.
Some of the new political divisions in Poland echo those of its neighbours, not least differences between Dr Angela Merkel and her CSU partners in Germany. But parliamentary elections in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia next year are expected to see left-wing parties do better than in Poland. That makes it difficult to generalise too much about the overall political direction of the new EU member-states.