Frustration and Alienation
Warsaw’s Confrontational Policy toward Germany
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Disagreements over European policy, differences over the appropriate response to Russia’s war against Ukraine, and now demands from Warsaw for reparations stemming from the Second World War. All of this is straining German-Polish relations. Poland’s governing coalition accuses Germany of instrumentalizing the EU in order to assert German hegemony and destroy Polish sovereignty. These shrill tones are not only due to the election campaign. They are an expression of fundamental differences in the political thinking within the national-conservative and liberal camps in Poland and the EU. In light of the war in Ukraine and challenges facing European security and energy policy, German diplomats and politicians should respond with calm to the harsh rhetoric coming from Poland and show strategic forbearance.
(Osteuropa 9-10/2022, pp. 39–51)