Poland must be ready to defend border with Germany – president

The country must do everything to maintain its national identity and independence, Karol Nawrocki has said

Poland must remain “ready to defend the western border” with Germany, President Karol Nawrocki has declared. The remarks drew pushback from Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who insisted that as long as Germany is a EU and NATO member, it poses no threat.

Nawrocki delivered his warning while speaking on Saturday at an event marking the anniversary of a 1918 uprising against German rule, recalling that Poles had lived under “severe German imperialism” during historical partitions, when “aggressive” efforts were made to “take away our culture and national heritage”.

Poland, he said, is a “national community open to the west, but also a national community ready to defend the western border of the republic”. Nawrocki, who was elected this year with the support of the right-wing opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, stressed that “we must do everything we can to ensure that Poland remains Poland.”

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The remarks drew an immediate response from Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski. “As long as Germany is in NATO and the EU, and is governed by Christian or social democrats, there is no threat to our western border”, Sikorski said.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed the criticism, saying that the remarks reflected “the essence of the dispute between the anti-European bloc… and our Coalition. A deadly serious dispute… over our values, security, sovereignty. East or West”. Nawrocki fired back by noting that “it’s hard to believe that we graduated from the same department – history.”

PiS, with which Nawrocki is aligned, has long presented Germany as a threat to Polish sovereignty. In 2023, party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski warned that the EU is seeking to introduce a “German plan” that would result in the “annihilation of the Polish state.” He has accused Tusk – whom he compared to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler – of leading a “pacification operation” to destroy Poland’s independence and “turn us into farmhands for people from Western Europe, especially Germany”.

The distrust harks back to the brutal Nazi occupation of Poland during WWII, for which Warsaw has recently demanded up to $1.3 trillion in reparations. Berlin has rejected the claim, saying the legal matter has long been put to rest.