“If Ukraine were dependent on Germany for defence it would no longer exist,” says Polish PM

In an interview with Germany’s Der Spiegel, Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has criticised Berlin’s response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, declaring that Ukraine would “no longer exist” if it had been dependent on Germany for defence.

Morawiecki warned that “Berlin’s inaction seriously calls into question the value of the alliance with Germany”, whose energy “policies have inflicted tremendous damage on Europe”. He also reiterated his government’s recent demand for war reparations from Berlin and claimed that EU concerns over the rule of law are designed to “weaken Poland”.

While Poland’s government has been among Ukraine’s strongest supporters, by contrast the stance taken by German has been “very disappointing”, Morawiecki told Der Spiegel.

“Berlin’s hesitation, its inaction, seriously calls into question the value of the alliance with Germany,” he warned. “And we are not the only ones saying that. I am hearing this from quite a few other heads of government in Europe as well.”

The prime minister also criticised Berlin for ignoring Poland’s longstanding warnings about its reliance on Russian energy, and in particular the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

“The Germans have always been very conciliatory towards Moscow, bowing down to Russia” while “patronising the Poles”. But “we were right, after all, with all our warnings about Russia” and now “clearly our voice is heard to a much greater degree” than before, said Morawiecki.

However, while it is now “becoming clear that German energy policy is in ruins”, he added, this has only happened after “Germany’s policies have inflicted tremendous damage on Europe”.

“The Ukraine crisis has shown that the strongest guarantor of security is the US,” continued Morawiecki. “If Ukraine were dependent on Germany within the framework of a European defence policy, it would no longer exist today.”

The Polish prime minister was also critical of the EU more broadly, saying that its financial support for Ukraine is being delivered too slowly. Meanwhile, Brussels has frozen €35 billion in funds for Poland using “false arguments” about the rule of law being under threat.

“Our judicial reform does not damage the rule of law in Poland, it restores it,” claimed Morawiecki. “I see more of a problem with the rule of law in the European institutions, because they presume to have the right to judge Poland’s judicial reform, but they do not have that right under the EU Treaty.”

A wide range of experts and international bodies have found the Polish government’s judicial policies to be a violation of the rule of law and a threat to the independence of the judiciary. But Morawiecki told Der Spiegel that the EU’s action in this area is in fact partly “about weakening Poland”.

“Poland is a locomotive of development in Europe. We articulate the experiences and interests of the countries that experienced communism. We represent diversity in Europe, and diversity is a value in itself. Maybe our role isn’t to everyone’s liking,” he explained.

Finally, Morawiecki discussed the announcement by his government earlier this month that it would seek around $1.3 trillion of war reparations from Germany.

“That is not such a fantastical sum,” he argued. “The budget of the entire Federal Republic of Germany, meaning the budget of the federal government together with that of the states, is almost as large.”

“We want to hold talks in Berlin and also invite representatives of Israel, since half of the Polish victims were citizens of Jewish heritage,” explained Morawiecki. The government will also “go all around the world to present the report” on reparations that it published on 1 September.

“It is possible that we will also take our claims to international courts at a later stage,” he added.

This week, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated Berlin’s longstanding position that the issue of reparations for Poland was settled long ago because Warsaw has previously renounced its claim for damages.

But Morawiecki explained that “we consider the Germans’ legal analyses, according to which Poland waived reparations in an agreement with the GDR [East Germany] in 1953, to be wrong”. That is because “the Soviet Union forced Poland to do so at the time…Moscow coerced its proxy in Warsaw”.

Main image credit: KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

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.