The current political discourse in Poland is still being dominated by Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski's speech in Berlin last week. Mr Sikorski's vision of a European federation (led by Germany) was always going to be divisive in Poland.
A nation partitioned and removed from the map for 123 years only to be thrust under Soviet control for nearly half a century after WWII, cannot be blamed for valuing independence highly.
A number of politicians from the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party wasted no time in lambasting the foreign minister, with MP Joachim Brudziński telling journalists that Mr Sikorski “longed for the Fourth Reich.” Party spokesperson Adam Hofman, meanwhile, said “Poles would be like Indians in the reservations,” in the Europe envisioned by Mr Sikorski.
PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński also announced that on December 13 (the 30th anniversary of the introduction of martial law), PiS would organize a march in protest against Mr Sikorski’s comments. He said that Poland was in danger “of losing its independence.”
Tough stance
But Mr Kaczyński's words should be viewed within the context of the battle he is now waging against expelled members of PiS (Zbigniew Ziobro and Jacek Kurski) who are now in the process of establishing a new right-wing party.
Mr Kaczyński and his PiS colleagues are doing everything they can to convince their (extremely conservative and nationalistic) core electorate that they are not pussy-cats but patriotic warriors who will fight for Poland's independence to the last drop of blood.
Mr Kaczyński, who recently proposed the reinstatement of the death penalty, seems to be saying to his core support that Mr Ziobro and co will never be as tough or patriotic as his party.
Politically, this makes sense. Mr Ziobro and his Solidarna Polska movement will have a hard time attacking PiS from the right if Mr Kaczyński and his colleagues keep up this level of hard-line rhetoric.
It will always be a question of “why go for the counterfeit version when we can have the real thing?” for right-wing voters.
A boost for Sikorski
Meanwhile, Mr Sikorski's speech has created more headlines in the last week than he probably had in the whole of the last year (certainly outside of Poland).
As a result, his career has no doubt been boosted. Few Polish politicians will ever hear a speech of theirs being described as “historic” by media super-heavyweights like The Economist.
Apparently, Poland's foreign minister didn't reveal the full contents of the speech to the Polish president or prime minister before his Berlin show. If he had they may well have asked him to tone it down.
This week is due to feature another “last-chance” summit aimed at saving the European Union. Irrespective of what one thinks of Mr Sikorski's ideas, he has definitely given Poland a voice in the debate. Kudos to him for that.
