– Donald Tusk’s “set-up” with Chancellor Friedrich Merz consists in the fact that in a few days or months the head of the German government will announce that Germany will graciously pay some compensation to a microscopic number of people who were genuinely harmed during the period of the German slaughter—namely, 60,000 living Poles. Donald Tusk will then proclaim this a success, just as he did when Germany returned looted archives to Poland. It is hard to imagine a more grotesque message, when Berlin handed over just a few documents – says Prof. Andrzej Nowak in an interview with Gazeta Polska.
The historian uncompromisingly diagnoses Poland’s situation under Donald Tusk’s rule. In the interview, he assesses the course of Polish-German talks on war reparations. As Prof. Nowak argues:
“Donald Tusk’s ‘set-up’ with Chancellor Friedrich Merz consists in the fact that in a few days or months the head of the German government will say that Germany will graciously pay some compensation to a microscopic number of people who were genuinely harmed during the period of the German slaughter—namely, 60,000 living Poles. And in this way Donald Tusk will proclaim success, just as he did when Germany returned looted archives to Poland. It is hard to imagine a more grotesque message, when Berlin handed over a few documents.”
Prof. Nowak also addresses the sharp conflict between the government and the president. In his view, this is not a rivalry but a one-sided aggression. “We are dealing with constant aggression on the part of Donald Tusk and the executors of his campaign of hatred and contempt toward the highest office in the state. (…) This is aggression directed by a single man who is unable to step out of the role of a hater—one might say a Twitter hater—in which he has become firmly stuck, paying no attention at all to the duties of the Prime Minister of the Republic,” he assesses.
The conversation also touches on the dispute over foreign policy. According to the professor, contrary to the government’s narrative, it is not the president who currently plays a decorative role. “It is exactly the opposite. The decorative function is now performed by Minister Radosław Sikorski, who is mainly occupied with appearing on the covers of glossy magazines for admirers of a particular type of male beauty and with ‘Twitter politics’.” In the historian’s view, the entire activity of the foreign minister is focused on attacking the head of state.
Prof. Nowak also analyzes Poland’s position in Europe, stating that the country has become one without its own voice:
“I think we are in the situation to which Prime Minister Donald Tusk agreed when he took power in 2007. That is to say, Poland is merely an echo—and a weak one at that—of messages broadcast from Berlin.”
What logic guides the ruling camp? What does Prof. Andrzej Nowak say about the state of the right-wing opposition and its “extreme incompetence”? Has Poland made use of the geopolitical opportunity that emerged after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? And does Donald Trump really want to “sell” Central and Eastern Europe to Putin?
The answers to these and other questions can be found in a compelling interview with Prof. Andrzej Nowak, available exclusively in the latest issue of the weekly Gazeta Polska.