Polish foreign policy, which until the war in Ukraine had been trying to form a bloc of like-minded conservative and often pro-Kremlin European populists who share its hostility to Brussels, is now working to bolster a new bloc of European countries pushing for tougher sanctions against Russia, including the Baltic States and the Czech Republic.
At a meeting of European foreign ministers this week in Brussels, Poland joined Lithuania and other countries on Europe’s eastern fringes that have had a long and painful experience of Russian aggression by lobbying hard for an oil ban. import from Russia. The attempt failed despite strong opposition from Germany, the Netherlands and others, but it placed Warsaw at the center of a rising bloc of nations determined to punish Mr Putin for invading Ukraine.
It has also broken Poland’s close cooperation with Hungary, which opposes further sanctions and whose proud illiberal Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, shares the Polish ruling party’s views on Brussels, but has a long track record of friendship with the Kremlin.
Sophie Pornschlegel, senior policy analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Center, said the Polish government used the crisis to its own advantage. Despite Poland making no real changes to policies that would put it on a collision course with Brussels, she said the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, will likely be “quite lenient on Poland’s stance welcoming so many refugees.” .
Poland’s shift, and in particular the reception of refugees, has been warmly welcomed by many in the European Union.
At the beginning of March, Mr Michel, the President of the European Council, a powerful body that ultimately determines the direction of the bloc, but which has often struggled to find unity because of Poland and Hungary, visited Rzeszow, a Polish town near the border with Ukraine, together with the Polish Prime Minister.
“I would like to commend you, dear Prime Minister Mateusz, your team and the Polish people,” gushed Mr Michel.