© Wojtek Radwanski/AFPPolish Deputy PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski • Polish PM Mateusz Morawiecki and supporters
Warsaw, Poland • October 15, 2023
Warsaw, Poland • October 15, 2023
Poland's rise in the European Union's political firmament is in itself vivid evidence of the bloc's declining importance in world affairs. This is seen in the merely ceremonial role Brussels plays in the discussion of almost all contemporary crises and its inability to offer an alternative to American policy.
Since its "return to the European family," Poland has consistently played the role of spoiler in any attempt to make the bloc stronger or to negotiate with Russia. In other circumstances, in the kind of EU that Paris and Berlin dreamed of 30 years ago, Warsaw would have remained a silent appendage of the Franco-German tandem. The fact that the country now plays a disproportionate role not only means that Western Europeans have lost the initiative but also reveals the true extent to which the bloc's politics has become provincial.
For Russia, it is not Poland itself that matters, but rather the new conditions in the geo-strategic game we are playing with the West. We do not care which party will be in power in Warsaw because any government there is nothing more than functional, whose only way of survival is to represent US interests and maintain transatlantic unity. This, of course, nips in the bud any hope of a sustainable European order. After all, the strategic disposition of our confrontation with the West has always been determined precisely by its internal divisions.
Comment: This may be a fair assessment with probable conclusions should the wool remain over Europe's eyes and its ruts continue to deepen. One country has enough problems attempting to change its outlook and course. The EU comprises 27.