SPECULUM VERUM
– The realities of international politics caught up with the Polish ruling elite. Now they dress up in feathers and showy armor as defenders of the national interest, but the attitude of the Ukrainian authorities is, to some extent, a product of the policy of the elites of the Third Polish Republic.
And not only this government. Unconditional support policy, and as the last year and a half has shown, also almost limitless. And yet, in fact, nothing new is happening. Ukrainians do not take Polish interests into account, and even image and sensitivity. President Zelensky defined Poland, without mentioning it by name, euphemistically described as Russia's useful idiot. He did this in front of the entire UN General Assembly - representatives of most of the world's countries. It's hard to treat it in other terms, than as an attack on our country's international position, an attempt to delegitimize his national interests and activities aimed at their implementation in the international community.
Of course, Poland is not Russia's "useful idiot".. On the contrary - the elites of the Third Polish Republic made the Polish state and, to some extent, all of us, "useful idiots" of Ukraine. It was like this for three decades. The Ukrainians would not make any sudden move, whatever revolution they planned and carried out (and revolutions within Ukraine have always proven to have revolutionary consequences for the entire region), they could always find applause and support on the Vistula River, because it was always interpreted as a move to the West. In fact, in the eyes of the elites of the Third Polish Republic, there were no national interests, but Fukuyama's ideological vision of Poland as only a functional element, cog of the West, transmission belt of its values and interests to the east, and as an anchor for Ukraine, thanks to which it will find its way to the West. The final stage in the implementation of this vision was to be the democratization and Westernization of Russia itself, and then we all had to happily hold hands, live prosperously and safely in Slotterdij's "crystal palace" of the West.
In the name of this understanding of international relations, the elites of the Third Polish Republic were ready not only for the most far-reaching confrontation with Russia - yes, Mr. Kaczyński, I remember you uncooked, dangerous proposals to introduce NATO peacekeeping forces to Ukraine in mid-March 2022 r., when the Russians were still near Kiev. These elites also discredited Poland in the Western camp as irrational, "Ukraine's lawyer" who does not take into account the realities, which significantly limited our credibility and clout. And the Ukrainians took what he gave from the lawyer and did not acknowledge it. Since no one in Warsaw required a receipt...
Today, the ruling camp is boasting, that he predicted the development of the situation in the east better than the Western powers. Just, that this kind of puffing up is a disgrace to yourself and the state in the situation, when the authorities practicing them were not even able to predict the consequences of the widest possible common opening that they strongly supported, the EU market before Ukrainian agricultural production. Today they claim, that it was only about transit. To be clear - PiS has supported this for a long time 2022 r., and since the entry into force of the provisions of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in 2016 r.
PiS representatives in Brussels have supported the widest possible opening of the market over the years, the highest possible duty-free quotas for Ukrainian agri-food products, additionally, distributing funds through various foundations and associations to increase the potential of Ukrainian farmers, for example, in terms of growing raspberries, how it was in 2018 r. They have not distinguished the interests of Poland and Ukraine for years, they have been living the vision of the "intermarium" for years, "Republic of many nations", under which these interests were allegedly merged into one.
However, their visions are utopian, and the damage to quantifiable interests is really felt by Polish farmers. Felt at the back, that PiS, in turn, felt it in the polls, and even a few percent of the electorate means for them to be or not to be there before these elections, authority, or an accounting of how they have ruled so far. Hence, they dress up in feathers and armor as defenders of the national interest. Until the elections.
Zelensky's attack also completely refutes the claims of those Ukrainophiles who blame the problems on "Russian agents" in Ukraine., industry interests, oligarchs, "bad boyars" next to the "good tsar". Ukraine has always been an oligarchic state. Currently, at best, the pissed-off faces of Ukrainian oligarchs are replaced by invisible investors, owners of global investment funds based in Ukraine. However, in recent days we could see, that the anti-Polish edge of Ukraine's policy is today being sharpened by its president himself. For some Polish commentators, he seemed - as a political homo novus and a Russian-speaking representative of regions and social circles with no reference to historical Ukrainian nationalism - to be a better option., than Poroshenko - an old hand who appeals to these regions and these circles, which are contaminated by this historical trend. However, Zelensky smoothly entered the ruts of exactly the same policy, which his predecessor drove. Priority for direct relations with the USA at the price of agreeing on policy and economic concessions, and seeking a place in the EU through relations with Germany. Apparently no one in Kiev intends to pay the Polish lawyer anything. Even with gestures, even symbols in the symbolic field of historical politics. It's hardly surprising. The Polish lawyer worked for free, so as not to write too much.
Very characteristic, that by criticizing Poland's decision, Hungary and Slovakia on the extension of the embargo on the import of Ukrainian grain, representatives of the Ukrainian authorities referred to the narrative, that this is a usurpation of Brussels' competences by the Member States. This corresponds to quite clear ones, signals released by German politicians for months, about the admission of Ukraine (and Moldova) the Union can only be considered after taking another step towards deepening its federalization. This is what the PiS camp thought, that at the price of Ukraine's unconditional and uncritical support, it will get Intermarium, and receives Mitteleuropa.