Why Poland is allergic to Timmermans

EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans has severely criticised Poland's government for not showing any willingness to compromise over the judicial reform and not even trying to overcome the EU Commission's concerns. His comments have met with widespread indignation in Poland. The country's media explain why.

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wPolityce.pl (PL) /

EU commissioner threatening German attack?

Timmerman's speech before the EU Parliament leaves the pro-government web portal Wpolityce.pl perturbed:

“Particularly worrying is a passage dealing with borders: 'When Germany was strong enough, Poland was pushed 300 kilometres to the east. And when Russia was strong Poland was pushed 300 kilometres to the west.' This description was supposed to illustrate how, thanks to the EU, we aren't being pushed back in any direction nowadays. The problem is that these words don't give any indication that not just the Russian threat, but also the German threat, no longer exist today. On the contrary: if EU membership is all that is stopping the Germans from shifting Poland's borders, there can be no talk of a fundamental change. … Things are and remain what they always were in essence ”

Polityka (PL) /

A red rag for the right

The incensed reactions to Timmermans's speech are incomprehensible in the eyes of government critic and author Adam Szostkiewicz, commenting in Polityka:

“Frans Timmermans is like a red rag for the political right. … The PiS's propaganda media attack him as if he were a Bolshevist rather than an EU commissioner. But Timmermans is acting for a good and just cause. As long as Poland is a member of the European Union, which it joined of its own free will, it must observe the EU's principles regarding democracy and the rule of law.”