With vote ahead, Polish leader turns up anti-German rhetoric

Warsaw, Dec 10: Poland’s ruling party leader claims Germany seeks to dominate Europe. He warns that Poles could end up under the “German heel.” He snubs a German offer of anti-missile systems before Poland eventually accepts them — but gets in an anti-German dig along the way. Ahead of elections next year, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and the nationalist conservative ruling party that he leads have been lashing out against Germany while seeking to cast their main competitor as loyal to Berlin. Many Poles, like others in central Europe, have been critical of Germany’s stance toward Russia in the years leading up to Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, particularly for gas deals that created dependence on Russian energy and helped Russia build up its war chest. But critics of the ruling party, Law and Justice, say its anti-German rhetoric is becoming a threat to Poland’s national interests and risks creating a crack between Western allies while Russia wages war in Ukraine. They have been especially critical of the party’s vacillations over whether to accept a German offer to deploy three Patriot missile defense systems to Poland after a stray missile fell in Poland near the border with Ukraine last month, killing two Poles. Kaczynski reacted coolly to the offer early on, and said the Patriots should be placed in Ukraine instead — something unacceptable to Germany. Kaczynski also said that “Germany’s attitude so far gives no reason to believe that they will decide to intercept Russian missiles.” Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak finally announced Tuesday that Poland would accept the Patriots after all. But he added that he was “disappointed” to have to accept Germany’s “decision to reject the support of Ukraine.” Critics of the government see such slights as an electoral tactic meant to win votes from older Poles who remember World War II, which was sparked by Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland. The war killed 6 million Polish citizens, about half of them