Sikorski attacked over Berlin speech

2nd December 2011

Sikorski has ruffled PiS feathers with his recent comments in Berlin

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Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski has caused fury within opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) after a controversial speech in which he called for Germany to take the lead in saving the euro-zone from the debt crisis in Berlin this week.

Spitting feathers and baying for blood, the conservative party stated it would organise a march in protest of the speech, which it condemned as an indication of the foreign minister’s intent to surrender Polish sovereignty to an old historical foe.

“A march will be held on December 13 against the policies presented by the head of the foreign ministry,” said Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski. “Against the constitution, and without consulting with parliament, Minister Sikorski went incredibly far with these declarations, [which were] made in a foreign country.”

“Many Poles do not want Polish independence to be a mere 20-year interlude,” he added.

Mr Kaczynski also said his party would campaign to get Mr Sikorski hauled before the Constitutional Tribunal on the grounds that he apparently broke his oath of office by saying what he did.

Stoking the fires of history, PiS MP Joachim Brudzinski said the foreign minister was “advocating a Fourth Reich and German hegemony”.

Despite the seething anger in PiS circles, Civic Platform (PO) took steps to both downplay the speech and stand by the foreign minister.

The party stressed that the Sikorski speech was “unofficial” but at the same time admitted that PM Donald Tusk and the cabinet had given it the thumbs up before it echoed around the Berlin conference room.

“The direction and the main points of his speech have been accepted by me and are the result of many months of work by my government and by Poland’s presidency [of the European Union]”, said Mr Tusk at a press conference.

Away from the heated and divided atmosphere of Polish politics, the speech was well received in the rest of Europe, with German commentators lining up to praise what they regarded as timely call for action from a respected voice.

Piotr Kaczynski (no relation to the PiS leader), an expert in EU affairs from the Centre of European Policy Studies, told the PAP news agency that the speech showed that Mr Sikorski had become one of the main leaders “in the debate over the future of Europe”.

Readers Comments

Even an idiot understands that a strong EU presents a bulwark to Russian intrigue. If the EU falls, Poland will face some very real threats from the East. Germany is the only European country with the ability to stave off EU economic disaster. Kaczynski attempts to manipulate Sikorski's speech to strike fear in the hearts of Poles who remember Germany's Nazi legacy. Are Germany's citizens willing to bail out their spendthrift neighbors while being accused of having imperialist, Nazi-like intentions?

Tomasz - Pittsford, NY, USA
at 2011-12-02 18:57:06

Tomasz

You claim that even an idiot understands that a strong EU/euro is essential to,in effect, Polands future.

You only have to look at the response of Kaczynski and his extreme right wing PiS rump, to know that there are many idiots out there who quite simply don't or refuse to understand, quite how dangerous the current situation truly is.

Poland has come through the current economic mess, brought about by the greed and incompetence of World bankers but any collapse of the euro will send shock waves, throughout not only Poland but the whole World but that idiot and cronies are too busy focusing on conspiracy theories to see the real threats, rather than the imagined ones, to the Polish nation.

The apologists that claim on here, that Kaczynski is regularly misrepresented by the media (and no doubt including his own scribblings) should really wake up to where PiS and a deranged pseudo priest are trying to railroad the country.

The eurozone is now so vulnerable, its banks so fragile, its economy so weak that only Germany can resolve this crisis of the euro. What does Kaczynski expect? Germany to keep throwing good money after bad? Empty words with no action?

All Sikorski has said, is that he fears German power less than German activity. The real danger to the euro is that there is no German activity. That is Sikorski's message.

Germany already has the power but without its activity expect very, very serious consequences but I wouldn't expect an idiot to understand that which is one of the many, many reasons why I didn't vote for his unelectable party, who denigrate Poland with every knuckle dragging utterance.

Jestem Gejem - Opole
at 2011-12-03 08:46:39

We say that only the deaf can't hear but for me PiS and it's leadership have attended an advanced degree of "Deaf-ty" (if i may use a word like this) because they don't want to hear the voice of reason, and the voice of reason in my humble opinion is what sarkozy is doing to save his country (i am far to be a fan of Sarkozy too) because the reason says that we should 'follow' the strongest if we want to stay in the competition. My question is what PiS wants as a nation? In Mr Sikorski speech i see no attempt to surrender to German nationalisme it's rather an attempt or an alternative of being inactive.
I am a foreigner living in Poland

ouafi - lubawa polska
at 2011-12-03 12:57:25

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