Published on September 21, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Updated September 21, 2023 at 7:18 p.m.
This is certainly Vladimir Putin’s biggest victory in eighteen months: the implosion of European unity by Poland, which has decided to end its military support to Ukraine the moment it has the opportunity. No longer necessary. This Poland, which so impressed the rest of Europe when it had to stand up to Russia and did not hesitate to open its doors to one and a half million Ukrainian refugees, today gives up its greatness for small electoral calculations. Goal: Enable the nationalist right to retain an absolute majority in parliament and avoid a coalition government. Three weeks before the parliamentary elections, President Andrzej Duda is returning to the old populist reflex of introspection.
He chooses shame and perhaps goes to war: under the pretext of wanting to devote all defense efforts to protecting his fellow citizens, he runs the risk of destabilizing the Ukrainian ally and advancing the enemy in this large space. Buffer separating him Russia. If Ukraine fails, Poland will be at the forefront.
“The stern holds”
They are pushing the betrayal so far that they want to expand the list of Ukrainian products that are no longer allowed to be sold on their soil. It is its agricultural interests, particularly crops, that it claims to defend. An incredible egoism when you consider how much the country itself thrives on European solidarity: it is even the first net beneficiary.
This about-face in Poland foreshadows what could happen in Washington in the coming months. As the race for the White House heats up, the question will be whether to continue paying tens of billions of dollars to a country of such little strategic interest to Americans. The possible victory of Donald Trump in 2024 would certainly mean the end of this great dynamic that has led the entire West to defend democracy and respect for borders through Ukraine.
However, Ukrainians will remember that the first betrayal in Poland was much closer. “The army will hold if the rear guard holds,” they said of France during the First World War. The Ukrainians, who are waging a heroic and almost unexpected battle against barbarism, tell us otherwise.
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