Polish deputy PM accuses Germany of turning EU into ‘Fourth Reich’

Germany is seeking to turn the European Union into a federalist "Fourth German Reich", says Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and leader of its ruling party.

There are some countries that “are not enthusiastic at the prospect of a German fourth Reich being built on the basis of the EU,” Kaczynski said, referring to the Nazi Third Reich under Adolf Hitler.

“If we Poles agreed with this kind of modern-day submission, we would be degraded in different ways,” the Law and Justice (PiS) party president told Polish far-right daily GPC in an interview published on Friday.

He went on to say that the European court of justice is being used as an “instrument” for federalist ideas.

Other PiS leaders such as Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Justice Minister Zbigiew Ziobro have also recently warned that efforts are underway to turn the EU into a single, federal “superstate” and that the EU is headed towards a type of bureaucratic centralism that needs to be stopped.

Earlier this month, during a visit to Warsaw by the German’s new chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Morawiecki declared that the current Berlin government’s support for the “United States of Europe is a dangerous utopia” and could lead to conflicts among states.

Tensions between Brussels and Warsaw have reached new heights since the EU warned of legal action against Poland for ignoring European Union law and undermining its judicial independence as Poland’s Constitutional Court ruled on October 7 that Brussels may not override the country's top legislation.

Warsaw and Brussels have been at loggerheads for years over judicial reforms pushed through by the PiS government. Brussels believes the reforms hamper democratic freedom but Poland says they are needed to root out corruption among judges.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has already ruled against Poland for implementing a mechanism to lift the immunity of judges in the Constitutional Court and to expel anyone deemed unacceptable by the parliament dominated by the Law and Justice Party.

The European Commission is also upset over a 2019 Polish law that prevents Polish courts from enforcing EU law in certain areas, and from referring legal questions to the ECJ.

But Poland and Hungary, another eastern EU member accused of undermining democratic norms, have a treaty mutually shielding each other from more extreme EU sanctions, such as the removal of right to vote in the bloc.

Meanwhile, Brussels is withholding approval of coronavirus recovery funds for Poland. Warsaw had requested 23.9 billion euro in grants under the fund and 12.1 billion euro in loans. 

Hungary, too, faces delays in receiving EU coronavirus recovery money because of its own defiance of EU rules.

Both countries have threatened to block EU businesses in retaliation for Brussels’ actions.

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