«The war? We’re the only ones who pay for it, but it’s a show Zelensky: something made of plastic.” Wojtek speaks Italian well; with his Nissan he drives up and down theChopin airport at the center who arrives at Warsaw. «I lived for more than ten years in Italy: first in Calabria then in Milan. Now the Italians make the reverse journey: they come to Warsaw to look for work, I act as a guide. Even to pensioners. The Italians here are rich, our old people don’t make 360 euros a month.”
The Soviet-style buildings pass by beyond the window, there are still the houses of the apparatchikthe officials of the Communist Party, who came from Moscow and here the anti-Russian hatred is as old as the treaty – it was 1795 – with which Catherine II and the Habsburg Francis divided Poland between them. But even stronger is the feeling of revulsion towards the Germans. Wojtek he invites: «In the city there is a triangle where you have to go: there you understand everything». AND Krasinskich Squarewhere the monument to the insurrection of Warsaw when the Poles tried to oust the Nazis and the repression was as brutal as that of the Stalinists just a few months later. Embracing these bronze “resisters” is the building of the Supreme Court: each column bears the quotation of a Latin brocard. Opposite is the national library and the Polish Army Field Cathedral watches over it all. The law, identity, the need to defend oneself, books to remember oneself, the Church to know who one is: Poland is all here.
Just further away is the monument to the ghetto uprising of 1943. “We are people who have suffered” he is proud Wojtek. «But now we no longer want to be anyone’s subjects. These Ukrainians who invaded us have to go: they come here to be cross-border workers, they work and then they go home and take away our salaries.” And Europe? «For us it’s like my car: a taxi. Once the wellness race is over, we go down. They tell you that we are in favor of strengthening the continent to defend ourselves from Putin. You have to think about it Born. Zelensky who wants our money has tired us: it’s not in Europe, it’s not in the Born why should we pay for him?”.
We arrived at Nowy Swiat: the walking street. «We eat well here» he invites Wojtek. «Special Regionalne» It’s a trattoria, run by five guys. Impeccable English to propose the Perla, excellent local beer, the inevitable pierogi (they are ravioli) and the bigos, a soup of sauerkraut, pork, smoked bacon, plums served in the form of bread. They also do it in Belarus. “Let’s not talk about it,” he whispers Dorota with cheeky braids that fall over a very thick sweater. «Lukashenko has decided to let migrants invade us: they are all coming here: Muslims, fake Ukrainians, Syrians. Lukashenko And Putin they send them to us to make us live badly and Europe does nothing, they left us alone.” Yet the mainstream narrative has told that Donald Tusk he returned to the helm of the government of Warsaw interpreting the pro-European inspiration of the Poles tired of years of sovereignist government of the Pis Jarosław Kaczynskieven if he remains at the head of the Republic Andrzej Dudathe jurist who comes from Krakow, very similar to Lech Walesaof which Poland of Tusk seems to have taken it upon herself to erase the presence.
Nevertheless Solidarnosch it was as close as possible to that monument in Krasinskich Square – according to an Italian-speaking taxi driver – which is still the soul of Poland today. But Tusk which from January 1st will receive from Viktor Orbánthe most vocal of European sovereignists, the rotating presidency of the Union, finds himself taken aback. He had to quickly brush up on the anti-immigration guidelines of Kaczynski. He decided to suspend the right to asylum and allowed the border police to shoot if anyone tries to enter the country. He has to do it because the numbers are heavy. In two years of conflict, around 15 million Ukrainians appear to have crossed the Polish border. The stations of Przemysl and of Rzeszow they were the only escape route, then they turned into bivouacs, today they are manned by the border police: at least 1.5 million Ukrainians remain in Poland. Tusk in order not to deny the pro-European vocation, he invoked the state of necessity.
Lukashenko And Putin they use refugees as a weapon of invasion: over one hundred thousand have crossed the Belarusian border. The Poles no longer want migrants, nor war, nor pay taxes to give weapons to Zelensky whom the Polish peasants see as an enemy. The controversy over Ukrainian wheat coming into EU without duties and dumping is anything but dormant. Kaczynski had put theEU on point, Tusk he tried to say with Ursula von der Leyen: it is a sacrifice for the Ukrainian brothers. But the Poles do not forget the massacres in Volhynia and in Galicia eastern perpetrated by the military of Kiev in the pay of Hitler. Hence the sharp turn of Tusk: «We will not respect or implement any EU idea if we are sure that it will damage our security. I am referring to the pact on migration.” The prime minister – he was president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019 – has another problem with “his” Brussels: money. Poland has already given Ukraine four billionbut now the national GDP is not doing so well. Growth is expected to be below 2 percent, and inflation remains high – above 5 points – so the Poles (unemployment below 5 percent) fear the competition on wages that can come from immigration. Wages grew by 12.8 percent on an annual basis and stand at an average of around 7,700 euros per year. Tusk to save the accounts he promised a further boost to consumption, thus masking the first symptoms of deindustrialisation that are producing giants such as Manufacture Of Łódz. It is one of the largest shopping centers in Europe: 27 hectares of shopping, 15 cinemas, 60 bars and restaurants where Poles even go on holiday to spend their zlotys. Because they don’t want to know about the euro.
A survey last April revealed that 68 percent of the population says “no” to the single currency. Even half of the voters of Tusk has this position. Five weeks after taking over the rotating presidency of the Union Donald Tusk must deal with a public opinion that is increasingly distant from Europe, tired of war and distrustful of it Zelensky. Maybe this is why we try to anticipate the other’s moves Donald (Trump) the Polish prime minister – he must explain to his fellow citizens that he has decided to spend over 4 percent of GDP to increase anti-Putin defenses – has launched a diplomatic offensive involving Emmanuel Macronthe British Prime Minister Keir Starmerthe general secretary of the Born Mark Rutte and the Nordic and Baltic states to achieve peace in Ukraine. Surprisingly, he excluded the Germany despite the «Weimar triangle» (Poland-France-Germany) having renewed common support for Kiev. Tusk he turns his back on Berlin because he no longer believes there Germany a reliable economic partner. Play ahead knowing that the US wants to end the Ukrainian crisis, with the same Zelensky who admits: «The war will end by 2025».
The Poles are waiting for nothing else and their prime minister knows it, indeed fears it. Despite having received 37 percent of the vote in the European elections, the Pis it trailed him by a few tenths of a point, but above all anti-European sentiment grew. Robert Bakiewicz he founded Polexit to drive Warsaw out of Europe. A survey of Research partnerthe country’s largest research institute, found that 20 percent of respondents hope to leave the EU, while 62 percent want to stay. To get directions, look into the ancient cathedral of Warsaw a stone’s throw from Piazza Mercato where there is the statue of the mermaid – twin of the one in Copenhagen – which gives its name to the city, here young Catholics pray against the “abortion trend”. Tusk proposed a bill to decriminalize helping a woman have an illegal abortion within the first 12 weeks. The law did not pass by three votes and the Catholic Church had its weight. Yes: in Poland religion still matters; it constitutes the bed of tradition where national identity flows. Thus visiting the castle of Warsaw rebuilt after the destruction in 1945, Magdalena, an elderly caretaker, recommends it. «There is a piece of Italy with Marcello Bacciarelli in the paintings, but visit the study of the presidents of the Republic in exile: it is also there Ryszard Kaczorowskiit was he who nominated Lech Walesa president of liberated Poland. We cannot forget it.”
