Germany accused of wanting ‘regime change’ in Poland

Berlin is trying to sabotage the Polish economy, Warsaw’s deputy foreign minister has said

A leading German politician has called Poland’s ruling party an “enemy” while Berlin-backed media and NGOs are trying to block major economic investments, all with an eye to regime change in Warsaw, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski has said.

“The opposition and its supportive media regularly accuse us of ‘provoking’ Germany, whenever  we have the courage to say out loud that our interests and theirs diverge in this or that matter,” Jablonski tweeted on Monday, linking to a controversial interview by European People’s Party (EPP) head Manfred Weber.

In an interview with the broadcaster ZDF on Sunday, Weber claimed the members of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party “systematically attack the rule of law and free media.” The EPP will consider any European party that supports “the rule of law” as an objective ally, the MEP argued, but “those who do not, like the German AfD, like Le Pen in France or PiS in Poland, are our enemies and we will fight them.”

Jablonski wondered if the main opposition party Civic Platform – led by former EPP head Donald Tusk – will condemn Weber’s words “or will he join his German colleagues/principals/sponsors as usual?”

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The outspoken deputy FM had posted over the weekend that Germany was behind the media reports and activities of nonprofits aimed against Warsaw’s push for capital investment projects. 

“We have more and more signals that in the coming weeks there will be attempts to block strategic investments for Poland,” Jablonski tweeted on Saturday. This will be done “under the lofty slogans of environmental protection – but in actuality to protect e.g. German companies from Polish competition,” he added. “All this to bring about a change of government in Poland, one that will withdraw from these investments and turn our economy back to the role of a mere subcontractor for industry from Germany and other countries.”

German-owned media “in moments of honesty” admit that environmentalist arguments actually serve Berlin’s protectionist agenda, and that the goal of this policy is to “change the government in Poland to one that will block investments that compete with Germany,” he argued, posting screenshots to that effect from the Polish edition of Business Insider.

Political rhetoric in Poland is heating up ahead of the anticipated general election, expected between October 15 and November 11. President Andrzej Duda has until August 14 to set the date.

Tusk has already accused PM Mateusz Morawiecki of hyping the threat of the Wagner Group, a former Russian military company now stationed in Belarus, in order to scaremonger the populace into giving him a third term. Morawiecki responded by calling Tusk soft on Russia and a stooge of Brussels.

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