Prime Minister Morawiecki attacks Europe

 

Letter to Editor of "The Spectator"

Dear Editor,

Has it ever occurred to Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in his lamentation on the failings of the European Union over Ukraine, (see issue of Spectator 05.08.22),  that the reason so few European leaders take notice of what Mr Jarosław Kaczyński, Poland’s actual strongman, says, is because he makes himself so obnoxious and uncooperative in his dealings with them?

I might share Mr Morawiecki’s view that the EU can sometimes be too intrusive into national concerns and that an ever-closer union is not the answer to everything. However, I also recognize the value of the continent-wide civilizational levelling up in the EU’s secular social and environmental agenda as being a useful template for most European countries to emulate, including those in Central Europe, and that the EU forms an important political and economic bloc to withstand the challenges of an aggressive Russia, China, and possibly a future Trumpian America.

It is no good just blaming Europe here. The current Polish leaders must realize that the EU’s overriding challenge to Poland lies in their own government’s decision to undermine both the European treaty and the Polish constitution over the independence of the judiciary. Also, there are genuine concerns throughout Europe about threats to freedom of the press in Poland. While Mr Morawiecki claims to be in the vanguard of defending Ukraine, his government is unwittingly playing the role of Putin’s “useful idiot” by seeking to undermine European solidarity and the European Commission, and by publicly indulging in their overt historical distrust of Germany. Instead of acknowledging the present German government’s attempts to wean itself off dependency on Russian gas, his government uses every opportunity to stir up nightmare visions of a Russo-German conspiracy to undermine European security. So, even when he is right over his criticism of Germany’s earlier energy dependency on the Russian pipeline, his opinions no longer carry the same weight in Europe as do those of his predecessor Donald Tusk.

Yours faithfully,

Wiktor Moszczyński