Radoslaw Sikorski is no stranger to the annual foreign policy briefing, having presented it seven times between 2007 and 2014 when he and Prime Minister Donald Tusk were already steering Poland's diplomatic strategy. Since then, an eight-year interlude in governance by the conservative nationalists of the Law and Justice Party (PiS) considerably tarnished the country's image on the world stage. The same two protagonists are now back at the helm. On Thursday, April 25, the minister of foreign affairs presented his vision of Poland's place in the world and the nature of the European project to the Sejm, the lower house of Parliament.
Under the Tusk I and II governments, although eager to join the "dominant view" of European politics, Warsaw was cautious about any deeper integration, seeing the European Union (EU) more as a vast market than as a "political power" dear to France. From this point of view, history imposed on Europeans a break that Poland has come to accept: In light of the war in Ukraine, Sikorski pointed out, "the EU has become a geopolitical project. Poland's role is to support this process."
Rhetoric of 'Western decadence'
First, he took the time to recall his predecessors' numerous errors and shortcomings to explain just how far the country has come. Sikorski's list of faults included chronic conflict with European institutions, the country's marginalization in international structures, deteriorating relations with key partners and neighbors (except Hungary), fierce anti-Germanism, alliance with Donald Trump's U.S. against the EU and rapprochement with openly pro-Russian nationalist political parties. Not to mention using the rhetoric of the "decadence of the West" as an ideological reference point.
Sikorski also quoted Zdzislaw Krasnodebski MEP, sociologist and philosopher, PiS's main ideologue on European affairs, who, in August 2022, in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, said that the main danger to Poland's sovereignty came "more from the West than from the East." Lastly, the politicization of the civil service to the detriment of competence standards, which did not spare the ministry of foreign affairs, was also very damaging. In mid-March, Sikorski dismissed more than 50 ambassadors with the stroke of a pen, not without stirring up controversy.
Poland is now formalizing its "return to Europe" and wants to be a constructive partner in its development. To achieve this, it needs to find a way out of a dilemma that has become untenable: "Choosing between mom and dad," as can be heard in the hallways of Polish ministries, in other words, between the U.S. and the European Union. In this respect, Sikorski wishes to develop "strategic harmony" with Washington, a term preferred to the "strategic autonomy" advocated by Paris.
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