Polish government condemns German EPP leader’s call to “replace ruling party in Poland”

The German leader of the European People’s Party (EPP), Manfred Weber, has sparked anger from Polish government figures after suggesting that his group is seeking to “replace” Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party and bring the country “back to Europe”.

Poland’s prime minister called the remarks “scandalous” while the government’s spokesman said they are an example of how German politicians are trying to influence this autumn’s Polish parliamentary elections by bringing the opposition and its leader Donald Tusk to power.

The centre-right EPP is one of the trans-European political parties that act as umbrella groups for parties from individual EU member states. It is currently the largest grouping in the European Parliament.

Weber, who hails from Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU), took over the EPP presidency last year. He replaced Donald Tusk, the former Polish prime minister, who had returned to Poland to take the leadership of Civic Platform (PO), the country’s largest opposition party and another EPP member.

The national-conservative PiS, meanwhile, is part of the much smaller right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) grouping.

In an interview with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung published yesterday, Weber said that the EPP wants to “exclude radicals” and cooperate with groups that are “pro-Europe, pro-Ukraine, pro-rule of law”.

“In this way, we are building a firewall against PiS,” he added. “We are the only force that can replace PiS in Poland, leading the country back to Europe.”

“PiS belongs in the camp of our political opponents,” he added, arguing that, by undermining the rule of law in Poland, “they have placed themselves outside the democratic discourse and join the company of the AfD and Le Pen”.

The latter is a reference to the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and French far-right leader Marine Le Pen. Both AfD and Le Len’s National Rally (RN) party are part of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group in the European Parliament. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Le Pen enjoyed close relations with PiS.

Weber’s remarks were met with a strong reaction from leading figures in PiS, which has long had tense relations with Berlin and has ramped up its anti-German rhetoric as part of the campaign for this autumn’s elections.

“Mr Weber, it is Poles who decide who governs our homeland; Berlin has nothing to say here,” tweeted state assets minister Jacek Sasin, who added that the “German politician [is] an ally of Tusk”.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called Weber’s words “scandalous” and posted a meme suggesting that, when one looks more closely at Tusk, he in fact turns out to be Weber.

PiS has long claimed that Tusk, both in his time as prime minister from 2007-14 and his subsequent period as president of the European Council, was too friendly towards Germany, whose interests he prioritised over Poland’s. It claims that Germany is trying to help Tusk return to power at this year’s elections.

“Manfred Weber’s words testify to the fact that the EPP is trying to influence the outcome of the elections in Poland,” said Polish government spokesman Piotr Müller today. “We have also had other German politicians who directly wished that PiS’s rule in Poland would end”.

This is “because our government’s policy is very assertive against the imposition of policy by Germany in EU institutions, and we are also the political party that strongly focuses on issues related to war reparations [for Poland from Germany], which German politicians do not like”, he added.

“The Germans want a puppet government in Poland,” tweeted Sebastian Kaleta, a deputy justice minister.

“Weber clearly treats Tusk as a man who is implementing the German plan,” added deputy interior minister Maciej Wąsik.

Former PiS prime minister Beata Szydło, who is now an MEP and deputy leader of the party, said Weber’s remarks show that this autumn’s elections will be a choice between “an independent Poland ruled by PiS or German domination”.

Meanwhile, another PiS MEP, Ryszard Czarnecki, said that, as an experienced politician, Weber should understand that “such statements will clearly be associated with Germany’s aggression against Poland” during WWII, when it invaded and occupied the country.

After the outrage over Weber’s remarks, the German politician’s spokesman, Dirk Gotink, clarified to Polish broadcaster TVN24 that Weber had been speaking as president of the EPP, not as a German leader.

“The EPP is the largest political family in Europe, the party of liberators from communism and the strongest voice against Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine,” said Gotink. “This EPP family is represented in all European Union member states.”

Main image credit: European People’s Party/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

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.