Germany is trying to create a Fourth Reich, taking advantage of the EU to force other nations into a modern form of serfdom by depriving them of their sovereignty, Poland’s deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczynski has accused on Friday.
Kaczynski has argued that Berlin has abused the EU’s legal mechanisms to deprive his country of its right to self-determination, referring to Poland’s current standoff with the EU over an ongoing judicial dispute.
He stressed that Polish people would be much poorer in a few years if Poland followed the EU’s approach to economic and energy policy and noted that if they would be degraded in various ways if they agreed to such contemporary serfdom.
According to him, this term – the Fourth German Reich – is nothing reprehensible and it is not about the Third Reich but a reference to the first – he did not mean to liken Berlin to Adolf Hitler’s genocidal Nazi regime – underscoring that it reflects quite well the direction of these changes.
Although he didn’t elaborate further, Kaczynski may have been referring to what’s informally known as the First Reich – the political consolidation attempts under the Holy Roman Empire which, despite its name, was largely made up of German states.
Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister’s remarks come in light of the decision of the EU to launch infringement proceedings against the Polish government, citing as a reason the violation of the primacy of EU law by Poland’s constitutional court that in two cases has given priority to the Polish laws over those of the EU. It also concluded that certain parts of EU treaties conflicted with the Polish constitution.
The bloc, however, insists that member states are obligated to follow its rules.
Kaczynski, nonetheless, maintained that in order to subordinate other member states to its will, Berlin is now attempting to dominate the European Court of Justice, using it as a tool, since the body can –and it does – freely interpret European law and draw usurping conclusions from it.
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