With his Europe speech at the University of Heidelberg, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki opposes the EU visions of Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz: nation states, not centralism, make Europe strong.
Poland's Prime Minister Morawiecki spoke in the old auditorium of Heidelberg University of a Europe of nation states
“Nothing in Europe will protect the freedom of nations, their culture, their social, economic, political and military security better than the nation states,” said Mateusz Morawiecki on Monday at Heidelberg University. “Nation states in Europe are irreplaceable.”
With his keynote speech on the future of Europe, the Polish Prime Minister drew an alternative to what French President Emmanuel Macron had outlined in 2017 and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz in mid-2022 as the future for Europe, says Bastian Sendhardt from the German Poland Institute: “The usual Europe speeches always have one future vision of Europe, and in his speech Morawiecki actually wants to go back to the origins, i.e. to the 'Europe of the fatherlands'.”
Morawiecki evokes De Gaulle's “Europe of the fatherlands”
The term was once coined by the French President Charles de Gaulle when it came to reconciliation with Germany and the reorganization of Europe after the Second World War. De Gaulle thus propagated close intergovernmental cooperation without supranational bodies such as the European Union. Although Morawiecki did not name the term, Sendhardt, like other commentators, says: “That was the central point of his speech.”
In their Europe speeches, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and French President Emmanuel Macron advocated strengthening the EU vis-à-vis the member states (archive image)
The governments of France and Germany want to strengthen the EU, for example, so that more European policy decisions can be made according to the majority principle. Morawiecki wants the exact opposite: “Let's refrain from interfering in things where national interests differ,” he said in Heidelberg.
Parallels between the EU and Russian imperialism?
Neither in Poland nor in Europe is the Polish Prime Minister alone in his concern that the EU could continue to curtail the sovereignty of the member states and push back their national identities. A parallel to the Russian regime denying the Ukrainian nation's right to exist is rarely drawn.
Yet this is exactly what Morawiecki did by using similar vocabulary in his speech, says Poland expert Sendhardt. Basically, the prime minister wanted to say: “Just as Putin wants to suppress the national sovereignty of Ukraine, the EU is ultimately a threat to Polish sovereignty.”
Criticism of “EU elites” and Germany
Unlike the “EU elites”, he does not see the salvation of Europe in a “centralized superstate”, explained Morawiecki. Because the European nations would resist it. Europe can only assume a global leadership role through a better balance of power across the entire continent – and through an expansion that includes the Western Balkans and Ukraine.
Morawiecki (middle) was received by Winfried Kretschmann (l.), Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, and the Rector of the University of Heidelberg, Bernhard Eitel (r.)
Morawiecki again warned of the danger that the war in Ukraine could spread to other countries and praised NATO as a protective alliance. At the same time, he did not shy away from weakly veiled criticism of Germany: “Those who for years financed Russian preparations, disarmed Europe and forced weaker countries into a partnership with Russia bear some responsibility for the war in Ukraine.” He was alluding to the Nord Stream gas pipelines, through which Germany obtained Russian natural gas.
Features of a domestic political Europe speech
What Poland expert Sendhardt lacked for a real Europe speech was a concrete invitation to work together to the nominal addressees of his speech, the European partners: “He could have said: 'Despite all the differences, it is now important that Germany and Poland of military and defense policy cooperation,” says Sendhardt. “But there was no counter-project, no initiative where one could take action now.”
Instead, Morawieckis openly demands that Germany should pay “reparations” to Poland for damages from the Second World War. Otherwise the reconciliation that is so important today would not be possible. “It's the counterpoint, so to speak, to the German position, which says that at this very moment we don't need a debate at all, given the challenge of the Russian war.” In addition, the prime minister used the undiplomatic choice of words “reparations” instead of “reparations”.
Sendhardt believes that many are talking about nationalistic tones, criticism of Germany and Brussels and a lack of concrete proposals for a solution Points for the speech being more domestically motivated than actually trying to paint a vision of Europe.