Poland: What Germany does is always wrong – Distrust of the Federal Republic of Germany sometimes takes on grotesque features in Poland. Nevertheless, it is widespread far beyond the milieu of the right-wing populist ruling party PiS. [translation in comments]
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Poland: What Germany does is always wrong
Distrust of the Federal Republic of Germany sometimes takes on grotesque features in Poland. Nevertheless, it is widespread far beyond the milieu of the right-wing populist ruling party PiS.
Poland | Anti-Germany Demonstration in Front of the German Embassy in Warsaw
Projection of the demonstration organizers on the facade of the German Embassy in Warsaw on March 23, 2022.
There are a few hundred people who gathered in front of the German Embassy in Warsaw on Wednesday (03/23/2022) evening to protest against the German government’s Russia policy. The Gazeta Polska Codziennie newspaper, which is close to the Polish ruling party PiS, had called for the protest with the lead headline “Everyone in front of the German embassy.” Everyone who considers himself a patriot should come. Who does that appeal to?
“It’s because of this gentleman” that he’s here, says Andrzej, who is in his 60s, and taps decisively and nervously on a photo of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “Chancellor Scholz, tear down this wall,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyj demands on it. In his other hand, Andrzej holds a picture of Putin as a skull and crossbones against a nuclear-yellow background, with “Stop Russia” written below it, the last word written in SS runes.
Poland I Anti-Germany Demonstration in Front of the German Embassy in Warsaw
Banners with slogans at the demonstration in front of the German embassy on March 23, 2022.
“Scholz supports trade with Moscow. The blood of the children murdered by the Russian criminals is all over him,” Andrzej thinks. A few steps behind him stands a woman of about the same age. “The Ukrainians are fighting alone and Germany does nothing,” she complains. “What specifically should Germany do?”, I want to know. “Just do more and do everything differently.” I can’t elicit anything more specific from her.
A third attempt: an older woman stands pensively on the sidelines. She explains that she is simply annoyed by everything the Germans are doing: “The German government is financing Putin. This is a scandal! Every normal person should be here today and demonstrate against Germany. The whole policy of this country must be corrected.”
Discomfort over Berlin’s stance in Ukraine war
Meanwhile, on the stage, speeches are more shouted than spoken. On the façade of the embassy, in front of which the flags of the Federal Republic, the EU and Ukraine hang limply in the breeze, the organizers of the demonstration have projected the text “Don’t support Russia”; below, the red letters run like blood. Today’s Germans may not be responsible for what their ancestors did, one speaker shouts, “but they will be held accountable for this war.”
Daily Gazeta Polska Codziennie, 3/22/2022
Call for demonstration in Gazeta Polska Codziennie.
Discomfort about Germany’s attitude in the war over Ukraine is widespread in Poland not only among loyal readers of newspapers close to the government. As early as Feb. 25, 2022, the day after the Russian attack began, hundreds of citizens gathered in front of the German Embassy in Poland’s capital to urge – along with numerous Ukrainians – the German government to take strict measures against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. “People here and in Ukraine expect sanctions,” 32-year-old Katarina, who hails from the west of the embattled country, told DW at the time. She would like to see more support from Germany, she added through tears.
“Rickety equipment” from Germany?
Then, on the weekend of Feb. 26-27, 2022, the German government did its about-face on Russia policy. It agreed not only to a partial exclusion of Russia from the SWIFT payment system, but also to arms deliveries to Ukraine. Demo organizer and Gazeta Polska Codziennie editor-in-chief Tomasz Sakiewicz is not appeased by this. Germany blocked arms deliveries until the very end and today sends “ramshackle equipment” to Ukraine that endangers the lives of the country’s defenders, he wrote in his protest appeal.
Poland I Anti-Germany demonstration in front of the German embassy in Warsaw.
Banners with slogans at the demonstration in front of the German Embassy on March 23, 2022.
Avowed critics of Germany like Sakiewicz today represent a political spectrum in Poland that goes far beyond the PiS milieu. Even the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was rejected across party lines in Germany’s northeastern neighbor. The general opinion today is that Berlin is doing too little to strengthen Ukraine, is too slow in making decisions, is too dependent on Russia and does not recognize the weight of symbols.
The dangers of the trip to Kiev
“Basically, major crises and wars make people less tolerant,” says Klaus Bachmann, a German political scientist who lives in Warsaw, in an interview with DW. Social pressure, he says, forces people to toe the common line. “Then it’s no longer enough to do or say the right thing – you also have to do or say it at the right moment, namely when everyone demands it,” Bachmann continues. That’s exactly what happened, he said: “The federal government made a 180-degree turn – but just a few days too late and not radical enough.”
Klaus Bachmann
Journalist, scientist and historian Klaus Bachmann
Bachmann has a similar interpretation of German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck’s announcement that he would travel to the Ukrainian capital of Kiev – as PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, along with the heads of government of the Czech Republic and Slovenia, had already done in a spectacular train trip to the war zone.
Think more, trumpet less
“After everything had fortunately gone well in the process, Morawiecki had called on other heads of government to do the same. If Habeck had said that he was not prepared to do so, he would have fallen right into the trap and stood there as a coward,” Bachmann says. Apparently, none of those who praised the “trip to Kiev” had thought about what the consequences would have been if members of the government of a NATO country had been bombed, kidnapped or otherwise harmed in a war zone.
The problem is that the public and the media focus much more on what politicians say than on what they actually do, Bachmann added. This gives extreme positions more influence than moderate ones. The current U.S. President Joe Biden, for example, appears weaker than his predecessor Donald Trump. The latter had always had a “big mouth” – but his actions had mainly caused chaos. “In this dangerous situation, it would be better for all involved if they thought more, trumpeted less and talked more with each other instead of about each other,” criticizes political scientist Bachmann. “This is especially true within the EU and NATO.”
If it’s up to the PiS-affiliated whippersnappers in Poland, however, everything Germany does is always wrong anyway. “The criticism of these people is very contradictory,” Bachmann says, referring to warnings by Kaczynski shortly before the outbreak of war that Germany wanted to establish a “4th Reich” in Europe. “He was right, but he was wrong about the cardinal point.” Polish right-wing media and even government officials criticized Germany for aggressiveness and criticism of Poland on the one hand – but at the same time for pacifism and lack of rearmament toward Russia.
“And now that Germany is rearming, it immediately arouses old fears of German militarism – but you can’t criticize that now in Poland, because the rearmament is directed against Russia.” So, he said, people criticize not what the German government is doing, but that it is doing it too late. “So the usual world view is maintained, you can be anti-German and anti-Russian at the same time.”
Date 03/24/2022
Author/Writer Magdalena Gwozdz-Pallokat
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Tja
This also goes the other way around in my experience.
Great, comprehensive analysis, keep the good work, greetings from beloved Poland.
But Germany’s money has been and will be happily accepted of course.
Poland and Hungary are spitting on European values all the time. Make no mistake, it’s good that Poland is supporting Ukraine the way it is right now, but they aren’t far from Putin themselves and need to PiS off.
Polish people are probably the most nationalistic people in Europe and their society unfortunately has quite a big victim complex.
So why has so many Polish people moved to Germany. Half my neighbors are Polish and all very nice people I may add. (Frankfurt, Germany).
But they’re first to ask for money. Really tired with Poland tbh.
Poland being the black sheep of the EU once more
Classic Visegrad states, they should cheer for their best buddy Hungary for their stance
Well, the polls say something exactly different. (no pun inteded) So explain that. This is just a loud minority. And it’s a free country if they wanna protest, they can protest.
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>”A majority of Polish citizens think Germany no longer poses a military threat to Poland, and more than half think strengthening the German military would be “positive,” according to the latest German-Polish barometer poll published Wednesday.
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>The poll — which surveyed 1,000 Polish citizens and 1,o00 Germans in April — found that some 65 percent of Poles do not see Germany as a political or economic threat to their country, with two-thirds saying they favor stronger cooperation between the two countries. More than half said they think Germany contributes to “better cooperation” in Europe”
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>**There is evidence of greater Polish sympathy towards Germans than German sympathy toward Poles. According to the Polish CBOS (Center for Researching Public Opinion), 44% of the respondents stated that they were fond of Germans, placing them closely behind eternal Polish friends, the Americans, French and Czechs. Twenty-three percent of people said that they had an aversion to Germans. On the German part, the most-prevailing response, from 60% of Poles, was “neither sympathy nor aversion” which illustrates an ambivalent attitude from Germans toward Polish people. Polish people remain much more interested in Germany than vice-versa.**
“Insert deal with it meme here” the polish nationalists seem to have much to compensate maybe they aren’t happy with their country so they have to irritate us germans. Their Germany complex is staggering
As a german, we are used to it take the blame, whenever something goes wrong in Europe.