EU becoming “Fourth Reich under German hegemony”, says Polish deputy minister

Germany is turning the European Union into a “Fourth Reich”, says a deputy minister in Poland’s government. His public remarks follow widespread reports that ruling party leader Jarosław Kaczyński used exactly the same words at a private meeting with his MPs.

The prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, and justice minister, Zbigiew Ziobro, have also in recent days warned that efforts are underway to turn the EU into a single, federal “superstate”.

“There is no doubt, looking at the actions of the EU, that it is to be a continent under German hegemony,” deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski told TV Trwam. “This is the implementation of the Fourth Reich.”

As evidence, Romanowski pointed to an opinion issued this week by an advocate-general of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), who declared that a mechanism empowering the EU to suspend funds for countries that violate the rule of law is legal.

This “opens the door wide to politically blackmail EU member states with a very powerful tool”, said the deputy minister. “The [CJEU] is a very important tool in the process of federalisation of the EU.”

His remarks echoed those of his superior, Ziobro, who on Thursday told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that the new government in Berlin has as its “goal a European superstate led by the EU establishment”.

“The economic blackmail of Poland, which is beginning now, also serves this purpose,” added the justice minister. While Ziobro said that he wants Poland to be in the EU, he warned that Poles would not accept “being relegated to the status of a federal state”.

Speaking on Friday, Morawiecki also declared that the idea of a “United States of Europe is a dangerous utopia”. It would “impoverish European heritage” and could lead to conflicts between states, said the prime minister, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Earlier in the week, Kaczyński – who as chairman of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is Poland’s de facto leader – had called a private meeting of the PiS parliamentary caucus. According to multiple inside sources, Kaczyński claimed that Germany was building a “Fourth Reich”.

“The Germans have laid their cards on the table and want to build the Fourth Reich. We will not allow it!” said Kaczyński, according to a PiS MP who attended the meeting and spoke anonymously to Wirtualna Polska. Kaczyński’s remarks received a round of applause, according to a source who spoke to Polityka.

While Kaczyński’s words have not been officially confirmed, a senior PiS lawmaker, Marek Ast, went on record to tell Wirtualna Polska that, “if the chairman uses such blunt words, it is to illustrate a situation” in which “Germany is striving for the federalisation of Europe”.

Speaking on yesterday at a gathering of European right-wing leaders in Warsaw, Kaczyński warned that “as a result of German actions, Europe is moving towards federalisation”. This, he said, “poses a threat to civilisation” and could even result in the destruction of democracy.

In response, Borys Budka, head of the parliamentary caucus of Poland’s biggest opposition party, Civic Platform (PO), condemned “Kaczynski’s Germanophobia” and the fact that he was “welcoming friends of Putin in Warsaw like heroes”.

Such actions are “the next step towards blowing apart the European community from within, and the next step towards Polexit”, said Budka, repeating accusations regularly made by the opposition – and denied by PiS – that the ruling party is pushing Poland towards the EU exit door.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Gazeta

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.