The German chancellor’s remarks in Stuttgart have triggered outrage in Poland. The controversy concerns a statement by Friedrich Merz about the war in Ukraine. While referring to the conflict, the German politician invoked World War II but omitted the issue of his country’s aggression against Poland.
On Friday, a convention of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) was held in Stuttgart. In his speech there, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated, among other things, that “the world is being reordered, Europe is under pressure, and Germany is being called upon to assume greater responsibility.”
The German politician also spoke about the war in Ukraine—and it was his words on this matter that caused the greatest stir in Poland. As Merz stated, the conflict “will soon have lasted four years.” “That is longer than World War II,” he declared.
Commentators have noted that the chancellor apparently considers Germany’s invasion of Poland not to have been part of World War II. Internet users point out that such a view is popular among representatives of Berlin and fits into a narrative suggesting that it was not Berlin that initiated the conflict.
There have also been questions directed at the government of Donald Tusk. Poles are demanding a firm response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the summoning of the German ambassador.
The concept of a four-year war is strongly present in Soviet, and later Russian, propaganda, referred to as the “Great Patriotic War,” which began in 1941 with the Third Reich’s attack on the USSR, omitting the attack on Poland in 1939 and the war in Europe in 1940. At the same time, the USSR did not acknowledge its participation in World War II.