NewsRescue
According to Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski, a key German politician has labeled Poland’s ruling party a “enemy,” while Berlin-backed media and NGOs are attempting to stymie large economic investments, all with an eye toward regime change in Warsaw.
“Whenever we have the courage to say out loud that our interests and theirs diverge in this or that matter, the opposition and its supportive media regularly accuse us of ‘provoking’ Germany,” Jablonski tweeted on Monday, linking to a contentious interview by European People’s Party (EPP) head Manfred Weber.
Weber alleged in an interview with ZDF on Sunday that members of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party “systematically attack the rule of law and free media.” According to the MEP, the EPP will view any European party that respects “the rule of law” as an objective ally, but “those who do not, like the German AfD, Le Pen in France, or PiS in Poland, are our enemies and we will fight them.”
Jablonski wondered if the largest opposition party Civic Platform, led by former EPP head Donald Tusk, would criticize Weber’s remarks, “or will he join his German colleagues/principals/sponsors as usual?”
Over the weekend, the outspoken deputy FM claimed that Germany was behind media reports and nonprofit operations opposing Warsaw’s quest for capital investment projects.
“We are getting more and more indications that there will be attempts to stymie strategic investments for Poland in the coming weeks,” Jablonski tweeted on Saturday. This will be done “under lofty environmental protection slogans – but in reality to protect e.g. German companies from Polish competition,” he continued. “All for the purpose of bringing about a change of government in Poland, one that will withdraw from these investments and reduce our economy to the status of a mere subcontractor for industry from Germany and other countries.”
German-owned media “in moments of honesty” admit that environmentalist arguments serve Berlin’s protectionist agenda, and that the goal of this policy is to “change the government in Poland to one that will block investments that compete with Germany,” he argued, posting screenshots from the Polish edition of Business Insider to support his point.
Political rhetoric in Poland is heating up ahead of the upcoming general election, which is set to take place between October 15 and November 11. President Andrzej Duda has until August 14 to make a decision.
Tusk has already accused Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki of exaggerating the threat posed by the Wagner Group, a former Russian military organization now stationed in Belarus, in order to scare the public into voting for him for a third term. Morawiecki reacted by referring to Tusk.
