Poland Made Powerful Points About The German-Led EU’s Imperialist Proclivities

Poland has valid reasons for considering Germany's plans to be hegemonic to the core and no different in principle from what his government interprets Russia’s as being in Ukraine, which to be clear, proponents of the emerging Multipolar World Order can disagree with while still endorsing his sharp critiques of that Central European Great Power.

It’s not often that those who share the multipolar worldview would agree with something that a Polish official has said, yet that’s precisely what many might find themselves doing after reading Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau’s article about how “Freedom and equality of nations are the only defense against the threat of imperialism”, which was just published in the Rzeczpospolita journal. To be clear, proponents of the emerging Multipolar World Order obviously won’t see eye-to-eye with him when it comes to Russia’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine, but his sharp critiques of the German-led EU’s imperialist proclivities are spot-on and will be reviewed in the present piece.

Rau opened up by raising concerns about Germany’s turbocharged efforts to formally lead the EU in light of the recent events unfolding in Eastern Europe, which he said prompts Poland to share its perspective on this sensitive issue owing to “its history of falling prey to its neighbours’ imperialism”. Although not explicitly stated, this also importantly included Germany during the 123 years of tripartite occupation from 1795-1918 and again during the Nazis’ genocidal occupation from 1939-1945 that tragically resulted in the extermination of 6 million Poles, half of whom were Jewish. I wrote about Germany’s latest hegemonic powerplay at the end of July, which can be read here for background.

Titled “Germany’s Century-Long Plot To Capture Control Of Europe Is Almost Complete”, it concisely explains Berlin’s gamble to seize control of the bloc by cleverly exploiting the latest phase of the Ukrainian Conflict that began in late February. My article also extends credence to influential Polish politician Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s warning in early January that Germany is plotting to establish a so-called “Fourth Reich”, which I elaborated upon in my related piece titled “Poland’s Grey Cardinal Is Correct: Germany Is Indeed Building A Fourth Reich”. Taken together, my two analyses and Rau’s latest article should be read in sequence by intrepid observers in order to better understand the larger context.

Returning back to the Polish Foreign Minister’s piece for Rzeczpospolita, he then segued into rehashing his government’s interpretation of the Ukrainian Conflict to reaffirm that “It is imperative for today’s Europe to defend the freedom and equality of both individuals and nations in virtually every corner of the continent”, which soon thereafter made way for him to point out what he regards as some forces’ hypocrisy in this respect. Poland’s top diplomat specifically calls out the EU for supposedly replicating the modus operandi of what he considers to be “Russian imperialism”, which is an unprecedented criticism given the contemporary context of the Ukrainian Conflict and its extreme sensitivity.

Rau explained that “The largest deficit of freedom is evidenced by increasingly common decision-making through majority vote, which causes the Union members’ inequality to grow. Small and medium-sized states, who are disproportionately less capable of building effective coalitions, including blocking coalitions, are doomed to lose when attempting to defend their rights, interests or needs on their own. And when outvoted, their fate is decided by others, which means that their freedom is fundamentally violated.” This aligns with the EuroRealist vision of EU integration championed by Poland in contrast to Germany’s EuroLiberal one wherein the former supports state sovereignty while the latter opposes it. 

Building upon that paradigm, Poland’s top diplomat then lambasted the euro, which follows Kaczynski warning in early July that Germany was pressuring his country to adopt this currency order to “kill” its economic prospects and thus make it a more pliable puppet. Rau brought up the example of Greece to foreshadow the dark path that Poland would be forced down in the event that Germany succeeded in coercing it to abandon its national currency. The solution that he put forth is to suggest “systemic and partial debt relief for some eurozone members or either temporary or permanent return to their national currencies.” Rau then concluded by describing the present moment as an existential challenge.

After reading Rau’s insight into the imperialist threat posed to Poland by Germany and the bloc that it unofficially controls, it can be said that his perspective is pertinent to understanding the concerns of the EU’s comparatively medium- and smaller-sized countries in the present context of Berlin’s ambitions to assume formal leadership of Europe’s comprehensive integration. Poland has valid reasons for considering that Great Power’s plans to be hegemonic to the core and no different in principle from what his government interprets Russia’s as being in Ukraine, which to be clear, proponents of the emerging Multipolar World Order can disagree with while still endorsing his sharp critiques of Germany.

Far from uniting the EU under Germany’s US-backed leadership, the latest US-provoked phase of the Ukrainian Conflict has actually exacerbated preexisting and irreconcilable differences over the direction that this bloc’s integration should take in the future. The Polish-led EuroRealist vision endorses a return to state sovereignty so as to ensure the genuine equality of all EU members whereas the German-led EuroLiberal vision endorses the continued erosion of state sovereignty so as to ensure that Central European Great Power’s continued hegemony vis a vis all other EU members. It remains unclear which vision will prevail, but there’s no doubt that they’ll fiercely compete across the coming future.