The article feels like a smear job to me. I’m not familiar with the political machinations of Poland and Eastern Europe, but I can certainly spot the derogatory language.

How can we be so sure Poland’s economic success is dependent on the EU? Eastern Europe appears to be on the rise because it embraces economic growth, while Western Europe imposes ever more regulatory restrictions and costly barriers to business.

West Germany outsources a lot of its supply chain to Poland for a reason – because it’s cost effective. If it was cheaper to do business in Italy, I’m sure it would do that instead.

I’m not sure what to make of this statement; “In recent years, Poland has granted the executive branch increasing control over the courts…” This might be true, but on the surface it doesn’t make sense. How do you give the executive control over the judiciary? Is this true, or has the Polish govt given more authority to the elected legislative branch?

Strikes me the author has his own axe to grind. Seems to be saying “‘How dare the Poles disagree with the EU and how dare they elect a nationalist government!” Are these really now grounds for immediate condemnation? I gave up reading after paragraph four.

‘Poland, then, may be keen to pose as the compassionate and brave saviour of Ukraine, but it remains stuck in the past, with an unhealthy obsession with provoking Germany and the EU, although it owes much of its prosperity to them both.’

The lack of self-awareness is cringeworthy: a writer, apparently with a straight face pens an EU-Germany apology which accuses other people of smug ungrateful freeloading.

I’m glad that someone is enlarging their army and when it comes to it the Poles WILL fight.

Poland’s futile bid to be Ukraine’s saviour? Without Poland’s unwavering support, Ukraine would have collapsed by now. So whilst the parallel universe this article was written in sounds interesting, in this reality things are a bit different.

The John Lichfield of Germany (or rather Berlin)!!! very poor analysis.Another spurious partisan penpusher.

I am from Poland, and I would like to point out that I did not and will not vote for PiS. I am critical of their antagonistic policy towards Germany and the EU. Poland owes a lot economically and socially to the EU. This is a fact that many in my country forget. The author of the article and Timothy Less seem to forget that Poland’s aid to Ukraine is not only a weapon. Millions of Polish citizens helped millions of Ukrainian refugees from the first day of the war by welcoming them into their own homes, donating money, food, and clothes to help Ukraine and Ukrainians. I myself was a volunteer at one of the Warsaw train stations when the war began. Some people literally got off the trains in pyjamas with a cat or a dog in one hand and a baby in the other. This is all they have left of their life’s achievements, thanks to Russia. It is interesting that the author of the article somehow ignores the involvement of us ordinary Polish people. Probably because it doesn’t fit his agenda: Poland and other countries in Central and Eastern Europe help Ukraine to spite Germany. Well, we help Ukraine, because for several decades we had the opportunity to personally know the true face of Russian friendship, and we do not want to see it ever again. Finally, I would like to point out that it was not Polish but German politicians who were employed in Russian gas companies for their own material gains, and at the same time acted to the detriment of their country and the EU. It was in Germany, under the dictation of the Green Party, that nuclear energy was abandoned in favour of Russian gas. We can all see how political rather than ecological these ideas were. There is no doubt that they were controlled from Moscow.

The idea of the Inermarium after World War 1 may have been fanciful, but imagine if it had been pulled off? It would surely have deterred Russia and Germany from expanding westwards and eastwards and saved a few million lives as well.

The US is taking advantage of the immaturity, sense of inferiority and revanchist dreams of restoring lost glories (thwarted by Germany and Russia) that dominate the hysterical foreign policies of Poland and the Baltic States.
The EU used to provide a stabilising framework for these politics – the bargain offered by the EU was prosperity in return for giving up on revanchism and ethnic minority-oppressing chauvinism. Unfortunately, no longer. Under von der Leyen, Michel, and Borrell, the EU is degrading itself to a NATO enforcer. The EU’s own wholesale violation of the principles of constitutional liberal democracy have disqualified it as an arbiter of member state policies in the area of individual rights.
The purpose of the “Intermarium” is to prevent the US’ worst strategic nightmare: A team-up of Russian energy and raw materials and German technology and manufacturing. Like the Ukraine is now, the nations of the Intermarium are just there to serve US interests, no matter the cost to them.

The article by Timothy Less mentioned here is well worth a read. It is about a nascent defence agreement between the US, UK, Baltic States, Poland and Ukraine. Very interesting!

Politicians in a democratic state saying stupid things that appeal to their most mouth-breathing constituents, in order to attain power? Say it ain’t so!

Nothing could be worse for Europe than Poland being dragged (or propelling itself) into this sheer madness.

It does seem to me that if all of the previous Warsaw Pact states left NATO but banded together as a similar defensive, but crucially non-nuclear, alignment then much of the wind would be taken out of Putin’s sails. That new pact could then align with NATO but crucially with no NATO weapons or forces on their territory. Russia could not complain of American interference and maybe other previous Soviet states could conceivably join up. That would give the new pact sufficient clout to feel safe from Russian imperial designs and be a stronger motor for peace than the current arrangement.

Sending money and arms to Ukraine is the new ‘Masking’ – everyone was sheep talked into it by the weasels in MSM and social media – and so Citizens believed in their pathological ‘Mass Formation Psychosis‘; and displayed by their flag of submission/virtue – the Mask – it was the banner of their Purity, their Militancy – and any not masking were the enemy they turned on to rend…… £500 fines for bicycling alone on the beach without a mask.

Till a wile ago… when everyone finally realized masking is Pointless virtue signaling – in fact has been part of the destruction of health and education, and oldies dying alone wile being ignored by people in space suits….

And like masking, this extremely insane creating of WWIII in Ukraine, is being kept on and on well past the point of reason, and now every sane person realizes it is a BAD idea – but the sheer inertia – and the sheer $Billions feeding into corruption – keeps this war from finding some resolution at the peace table.

Biden, Boris, and the Poles…. the last true believers after most have seen what a mistake it is…

But then remember the past… The Polish ‘Parliament’ were the ones who invented the political process of Defenestration’… haha – a mechanism of keeping all onside as if someone held out against the group think they would rise up and fling that person, that wrong thinker, out the window to their death.

This is Politics Biden, Boris, and the Poles see as totally excellent… and it has worked thus far… only now cracks are showing….the group are less inclined to jump to it and pitch the opponent out the window as there are more and more of them…starting to notice the citizens are not really still wearing the crazy mask…..not waving the yellow and blue flags……