Are the Germans really beginning to think like the Poles? Unfortunately not, and they will not for a long time to come

It is a very difficult time for Germany. The long-standing policy of close alliance with Russia has collapsed, and it has become clear to the whole of Europe what a mess Berlin has put it in. Everyone living across the Oder is now awaiting winter with increasing terror. The right wing is winning the elections on the Apennine peninsula, and Italy is becoming the next big EU country to oppose the forcing of a German perspective on the entire Community. On top of this, the Polish government is not only continuing on its sovereignty course, but is also requesting war reparations from its western neighbour. Germany has found itself on the greatest defensive in decades. This is great news for Poland.

The German authorities are trying to bring new meaning to the saying that the best defence is attack. However, in this case, such tactics bring about the opposite of what was intended.

The threats made by Ursula von der Leyen to the Italians have probably just made Giorgia Meloni stronger. This unprecedented, since so directly aimed blackmail was surely not the last that the German elite will present to us in the coming months. And we will not be surprised if in a year’s time they try to threaten the Poles in a similar fashion. They will threaten not PiS, but the Poles, frightening them with sanctions if they make the wrong choice at the ballot box.

They are going to lie, as Olaf Scholz did in Prague when he marvelled at the European Commission’s actions „in favour of the rule of law” accusing Poles of racism and anti-Semitism. The same Scholz whose country has grown anti-Semitism to its gargantuan proportions and turned it into a system of industrial-scale murder. Today, Germans pretend that this is only a painful past, but the longer they pretend, the harder this falsehood will hit them back. The 3,000 anti-Semitic crimes (figures for 2021) represent a year-on-year increase of 30 per cent, meaning that there is already an average of eight anti-Semitic crimes in Germany every day. There is probably no country in Europe that has a bigger problem in this area. Yet they dare to preach to anyone?

Everywhere we turn, it stinks of similar hypocrisy. Abolishing the unanimity rule is supposed to bring stability and security to the Union? No, it is an assault on European principles with nothing more than an attempt to save Berlin’s position. Ukraine becoming increasingly courageous in its counter-offensive thanks to German military aid? No, it is happening IN SPITE of Germany’s attitude. The latest proof here was provided last week by the Bundestag rejecting a plan for the transfer of tanks to the Ukrainians.

The increasingly brutal - and at the same time non-treaty and non-democratic - bludgeoning of successive countries (Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Italy) for the bad choices of their citizens is making Berlin more and more like the Moscow of the Warsaw Pact era.

Under such circumstances, a change was made in the position of the German ambassador to Poland. It is a change worth taking a closer look at. Never mind the dismissal of a diplomat who turned out to be a complete failure, who completely misunderstood Poland (and, more importantly, did not really care to understand it) and who was burdened by his father’s shameful biographical record (Hitler’s aide-de-camp in the Berlin bunker in the last weeks of the war). What is more important is who has arrived.

Thomas Bagger is not only one of Germany’s most experienced diplomats (working closely with four foreign ministers and the German president), but above all one of the most important architects of Berlin’s entire foreign policy.

It was therefore with great curiosity that I met him last week. During the conversation, which lasted more than an hour, we touched on German responsibility for the current situation in Europe, aid to Ukraine, the German perception of our commitment to history, war reparations and many other topics.

On the declarative level, this all sounds not too bad from the Polish perspective. That is how it is supposed to sound in the mouth of a diplomat. But it can be heard even from between the lines that he is going to scrupulously follow the line drawn at the head office in Berlin (my contacts from Polish diplomatic circles go even further - they believe that his main task is to help the Polish opposition in next year’s elections).

The only hope is that the ambassador will truly understand Poland and the Polish people and influence the Germans to actually make them think like us. It is a hope both for our countries and for the Community as a whole. It’s not just Polish arrogance - which Bagger is warning against - but an objective proposal that Germany should courageously face up to. Even if only in their own interests.