The head of Poland’s ruling party, Jaroslav Kaczynski, said Germany was trying to turn the EU into a federal “Fourth Reich”. This follows the laws that the union is trying to impose on Poland
“Germany is trying to turn the EU into a Fourth Reich,” said Poland’s ruling party leader Jaroslav Kaczynski. In an interview with the right-wing Polish daily GPC, head of the Law and Justice Party, he said that some countries “are not enthusiastic about the chance of a German Reich IV being built on the basis of the European Union”. He said: “If we Poles agree with this kind of modern surrender, we will be humiliated in different ways,” Jaroslav Kaczynski, 72, is also one of the four Polish deputy prime ministers.
He added that the EU Court of Justice serves as an “instrument” for federal ideas. The Third Reich was a nickname for Hitler’s regime in the Middle East.
Poland is embroiled in a protracted confrontation with the EU, especially against the backdrop of judicial reforms the party has been promoting since 2015. The EU is angry at Poland for stating that EU law is superior to Polish law. Poland accused the EU of “attacking our sovereignty” after the union opened legal proceedings against the country for disregarding EU law.
In a televised speech, Polish Prime Minister Matusz Moriewiecki said the EU decision reflected a trend of “bureaucratic centralization” in Brussels that should be stopped. In November, the same court ruled that the European Rights Agreement did not comply with its constitution.
EU law states that when countries join the EU, as Poland did in 2004, they must align their laws with the bloc’s regulations and accept the European Court of Justice as the supreme arbiter of these rules.