Election campaign in Poland
Parliamentary elections, PiS and mushrooms: A few anti-German tones never hurt
Jarosław Kaczyński, PiS boss during the election campaign in Pultusk, was hit somewhat unfavorably
© Imago Images
On October 15, the Poles will elect a new parliament, the governing party PiS fears for its majority. The right-wing conservatives are back to anti-German tones – and so rants from Warsaw can now be regularly heard.
Listening to the Polish government, one often gets the impression that the country is surrounded by malevolent neighbors. But at least it is pressured. At least from the West. So mainly from two cities: Brussels and Berlin. Because the parliament will be elected in Poland on October 15 and the election campaign has been going on since the right-wing conservatives took office PiS is traditionally the time of finger pointing, the representatives of the EU and Germany are now regularly hearing tirades of abuse from Warsaw again.
Does Berlin prohibit Poland from picking mushrooms?
Sometimes this has bizarre consequences, as the governing party leader Jarosław Kaczyński recently proved. Without irony, he explained that Germany wanted to privatize Polish forests with the help of the EU and thus ban the Poles from picking mushrooms. It is one of those daring claims that the PiS hopes to stir up feelings with: our arch-enemies in Brussels and Berlin are now also taking away one of our national cultural assets, mushroom picking.
In fact, in spring the European Court of Justice urged Warsaw to change some forest laws. Reason: You are apparently violating an EU directive on the settlement of forest animals. The Polish government, which in any case is not too particular about the application of EU law, once again felt that it was being bullied. And when it comes to the combination of mushrooms and foreigners, many Poles don’t take a joke either: the so-called “mushroom mafia” has been making headlines for years. From late summer, hordes of Romanian collectors in minibuses will be heading into Polish forests to harvest the forest fruits on a grand scale. The PiS is therefore demanding a mushroom quota for foreigners.
Morawiecki challenges Weber to a TV duel
Meanwhile, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has broken a dispute on a completely different level. Via Twitter, which is now called X, he calls on the chairman of the conservative EPP group in the EU Parliament, Manfred Weber (a German!) out for a TV duel: “He called us his enemies. If the Germans admit that you will intervene in the elections in Poland, then you should also run with your eyes wide open. Mr. Weber, don’t send your helper Donald Tusk in front. Face the debate “Wrote the PiS man angrily.
What happened? In a ZDF interview, Weber lumped the PiS together with the AfD and Le Pen from France and described them as “opponents”. “Each party must accept the rule of law. This is the firewall against the PiS representatives in Poland, who are systematically attacking the rule of law and the free media,” said the EPP leader clearly towards the far right. Weber is unlikely to accept Mateusz Morawiecki’s provocative invitation.
The prime minister’s thin-skinned reaction probably has something to do with the fact that a victory for his PiS party in the upcoming elections is anything but certain. At least not as sure as in the previous elections. In the polls, it is only around five percentage points ahead of the opposition party PO of former EU Council President Donald Tusk – which in turn is part of Weber’s EPP group at European level.
Anti-German tones from Poland’s ruling party
Anti-German tones can still score points with conservative Poles. Even 78 years after the war, many fear German dominance – whether as a neighbor or via the EU. Above all, PiS boss Jarosław Kaczyński understands the game with resentment perfectly. A year ago, his party presented a study on reparation claims. On 1500 pages, it came to the conclusion that the Federal Republic had to pay 1.3 trillion euros in war reparations to Poland. Whether with or without an election campaign – the matter is not off the table.
But even without foreign aid, the ruling party in Warsaw manages to make life and the election campaign difficult for itself: Health Minister Adam Niedzielski has now had to resign after he published medical data from a doctor who had criticized one of his reforms. The reform envisaged restricting online prescription of medicines. At the beginning of August, the minister had spread the name of one of his critics to X, pointing out that the doctor had prescribed himself psychotropic drugs and painkillers.
Sources: DPA, AFP, Daily News, “Augsburg General“, Euractiv, NDR