According to the president, Poland is “ready to protect the western border” with Germany.
In a speech commemorating the anniversary of a historic rebellion against German authority, Polish President Karol Nawrocki stated that his nation is still “ready to defend the western frontier” with Germany.
Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, who is a member of a more liberal, pro-EU administration, responded to the remarks made by Nawrocki, who is associated with Poland’s right-wing opposition. “There is no threat on our western border,” he “reassured” the president.
Poland commemorates the start of the Greater Poland Uprising in 1918 on December 27. The day was declared a national holiday in 2021 under the leadership of the previous national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government and PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda.
Following more than a century of division between Germany, Russia, and Austria, Poland wanted to reestablish itself as an independent state, which led to the uprising following World War One.
It started in the former German-ruled area of Greater Poland. The majority of the province had been seized by Polish forces by mid-January 1919, and the Treaty of Versailles recognized it as a part of the newly independent Poland in June. The rebellion claimed the lives of almost 2,300 individuals.
Speaking on Saturday at an anniversary celebration in Poznań, Nawrocki praised the rebels in Greater Poland for “offering us an example of how we may triumph.”
The president, who was elected this year with the backing of PiS, the country’s biggest opposition party, went on to say that Poland is a “national community open to the west, but also a national community willing to protect the western frontier of the republic, as the Greater Poland insurgents knew.”
Additionally, Nawrocki recalled how Poles had endured “serious German imperialism” during the partitions, when “aggressive” attempts were made to “take away our culture and national heritage.”
The president said, “We must do everything we can to ensure that Poland remains Poland,” just as Poles in the past took measures to protect their national identity.
Sikorski, a member of a government that has cordial ties with Berlin, responded to Nawrocki’s address today.
The foreign minister posted on social media, “I want to reassure the president that there is no threat to our western border as long as Germany is in NATO and the EU and is ruled by Christians or social democrats.”
A threat “could only occur if power beyond the Oder [river that marks the border] were acquired by Europhobic nationalists,” he continued. For our nationalists, that raises an obvious question: do you truly want Germany to become like you?
Germany has long been seen by PiS as a danger to Poland. Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of the party, issued a warning in 2023 that the European Union was attempting to implement a German plan that would lead to “the elimination of the Polish state.”
Additionally, they claim that the current administration is complicit in carrying out that plan. Kaczyński claimed last year that Prime Minister Donald Tusk was spearheading a “pacification operation aimed at undermining Poland’s independence and “turning us into farmhands for people from Western Europe, notably Germany.
Meanwhile, anti-Polish language has occasionally been utilized by Germany’s biggest opposition party, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). Tino Chrupalla, one of its co-leaders, stated last month that Poland poses an equal threat to Germany as does Russia.
The Polish-German border has been particularly tense in recent years, particularly because of Germany’s policy of returning thousands of unlawfully crossing refugees to Poland.
This led to the creation of so-called “citizen patrols,” many of which were connected to or backed by PiS, in an effort to protect the border against migrant transfers. Earlier this year, the Polish government reinstated border controls in response to mounting criticism.
