Poland: Deputy PM accuses Germany of building ‘Fourth Reich’

The Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Chairman of the Nationalist Popular Law and Justice Party (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczynski, accused in an interview published yesterday, Friday, the new German government that he wants to turn the European Union into a “fourth” “, commenting on its program, which provides for strengthening its federal character.

Other PiS leaders have recently used the term to refer to the intentions of the new center-left government in Berlin regarding Europe.

The program agreement of the three factions that formed the new coalition government in Germany actually states that its goal is to establish a European federation in the future. This dimension was strongly condemned by the PiS government. Mr Kaczynski told the Polish far-right GPC newspaper that if the plan went ahead, it would deprive Poland of its right to self-determination.

There are countries that “do not see with much enthusiasm the prospect of building a German fourth Reich based on the EU,” said the leader of Poland’s right-wing ruling party. According to what is considered the “brain” behind every major development in Warsaw, the term Fourth Reich “has nothing negative, it does not refer to the third Reich (s.s. Nazi Germany), but to the first”, ie the German Empire.

The Prime Minister of Poland, Matthew Morawiecki, on the occasion of the recent official visit of German Chancellor Olaf Solz to his country, also expressed the opposition of the Polish government to the “utopian and therefore dangerous” vision of Berlin for the EU. used emotionally charged terms, referring to the Third Reich, insisting that Warsaw continues to advocate a “Europe of independent states”.

The Polish government is increasingly in conflict with the European Commission, most recently due to the reform of its judicial system from 2015 onwards, which the EU considers to be politicizing justice. The Commission has initiated various proceedings against Warsaw and has appealed to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). This conflict seems to be deepening.

Mr Kaczynski has spoken out against the WEU, calling it a “key tool” for enforcing federal ideas. Warsaw has several liabilities from the WEU.

Influenced by the nationalist-populist government, the Polish Constitutional Court challenged the jurisdiction of the WEU in June and, in October, challenged the supremacy of Community law over Polish law.

On Wednesday, Brussels launched an infringement procedure against Poland over the rulings of the Constitutional Court, which, they stressed, “no longer meets the requirements of an independent and impartial tribunal, as required by the EU treaty”.

Source: AMPE