Stop NATO free riders (Morawiecki)

(B2) Just before his official visit to Berlin this Friday (February 16), which aims to rebuild the Poland-Germany bond, slightly mistreated in recent years, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki could not help but through the press, to criticize Germany for not spending enough on its defence, calling into question the “free riders” of solidarity (1).

Anyone who spends 1% on the budget is a free rider

« Who is endangering cohesion? (NB: from NATO or Europe) The one who says that everyone must spend 2% on defence, so that there is solidarity? Or the one who freeloads by spending only 1% but who lives under the [common] protective shield? “asks the head of the Polish government in an interview published Thursday by the German daily The World. " Whoever freeloads endangers the unity of the West “, he added (2).

Inappropriate anti-Americanism

Morawiecki also made a point of defending US President Donald Trump, accusing the Germans of inappropriate anti-Americanism. " If Germans know Russia under Vladimir Putin better than the United States under Trump, it would be 'the world upside down' ". In this case, " I can only hold my head with both hands and say: Save who can ! ".

A certain European lightness

The Pole also criticized Europe for taking " the slight » defense issues, echoing the criticisms of the American president (3). " Europe has so far taken defense lightly and lives under the shield of the Pax Americana », Estimates Mateusz Morawiecki. Europe must show its " opponents that we are serious about defense ».

Comments : the Polish leader thus says aloud those that others say, more discreetly, in certain European capitals. But above all, it seems to put the defense budget, transatlantic solidarity and vigor of the armies in the same equation, which is strategic and political nonsense. Germany did not skimp on its solidarity, however, by leading an Alliance battalion in Lithuania as part of the Advanced Enhanced Presence (EFP).

Beyond the criticism of the 1% of the budget, one can rather read in this diatribe, a criticism against a certain desire for European autonomy, in the same vein as that which the Americans have recently expressed, even more crudely NATO (read: The USA scolding Europe. When the cowboy pulls his gun, should we be afraid?). What Morawiecki criticizes on the sly is German Chancellor Angela Merkel's new position on the question of defence: US support will not last forever, Europe must increase its defense cooperation.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde, with AFP)

(1) The purpose of the visit is to reinforce “ economic and political cooperation ", indicated Mr. Morawiecki to the Polish press agency PAP, a cooperation " flourishing according to him on the commercial level (probably less on the political level). Also on the menu of the meeting are some more delicate issues such as the situation of the rule of law in Poland, the refusal to accept refugee quotas, or the Nordstream 2 gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany, but also surely the future of European funding where Poland is one of the countries most concerned by the reduction in regional or agricultural allocations to come.

(2) Berlin currently invests just over 1% of its GDP in defence, while Warsaw has already reached the 2% threshold. The CDU-SPD coalition program does not plan to reverse this trend in a major way (read: The Big Koalition defines its program. The Bundeswehr must become an “army of Europeans”).

(3) The Americans have regularly called on NATO members to increase their military spending to 2% of GDP. Donald Trump simply got the message across more forcefully, targeting Germany in particular. Read also: NATO obsolete, the EU too German, Brexit a good thing… The Trump festival continues