Sunday

3rd Dec 2023

Polish FM said to have called US ties 'worthless'

  • Radek Sikorski - his name has often appeared in connection with the EU foreign policy post, up for grabs later this year (Photo: consilium.europa.eu)

Poland may be heading for early elections if an ongoing eavesdropping scandal continues to grow, with foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, seen as in the running for a top EU job, now caught up in the affair.

Sikorski was apparently caught rubbishing relations between Warsaw and Washington, according to tapes published by weekly magazine Wprost.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

He told to Jacek Rostowski, then finance minister, that relations with the US create a false sense of security in Poland and cause conflicts with Germany and Russia. "The Polish-American alliance is worthless," he said, according to the tapes.

"We'll think that everything is super, because we gave the Americans a blow job. [We are] losers. Complete losers," said Sikoski, who has often been mentioned as a potential successor to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

He described the Polish attitude toward the US as "murzynskosc", which can be translated roughly as "like negroes" or more politely as "negritude".

"The problem in Poland is that we have very shallow pride and low self-esteem," he added.

According to the tapes, Rostowski agreed to support Sikorski in his campaign to become EU energy commissioner. In return, Sikorski promised to get Rostowski the top place on the EU election list for his constituency.

The conversation between top officials in Poland’s ruling party Civic Platform (PO) allegedly took place in one of the Warsaw’s restaurants in January.

The scandal started a week ago when Wprost published the first portion of secretly taped conversations between politicians.

They appeared to reveal that in July 2013 internal affairs minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz asked the head of the central bank for support in financing the budget deficit if the economic situation and ruling party polls were to worsen.

Central banker Marek Belka, in turn, asked for the dismissal of Rostowski (which happened in November).

Tapes recorded in restaurants

According to Wprost there are hundreds of hours of tapes recorded in different restaurants. The weekly says that they got some of them by e-mail from a businessman.

An investigation is underway into who was part of the taping.

According to leaks from prosecutors, some waiters were involved (one has already been charged), but it is not known who might have asked them to do it. Some commentators blame the opposition, some blame other sources – such as foreign secret services or business lobbies.

Investigators raided Wprost's office on Wednesday (18 June) to get the recordings, but after some hours they were forced to retreat amid protests by journalists from different newspapers. Wprost passed the tapes to the prosecutors the next day.

At the beginning prime minister Donald Tusk tried to play down the crisis and claimed that internal affairs minister Sienkiewicz and central banker Belka did not break the law.

But as the scandal evolved he was forced to change his position.

On Thursday, Tusk said he did not rule out Sienkiewicz's dismissal and for the first time said that should the political crisis escalate, early elections might follow.

Opposition parties are calling on the government to step down. They have also filed a motion for a parliamentary inquiry.

However an early election is unlikely to happen soon. The PM is seen as wanting to discipline his party and the governing coalition by raising the possibility.

But this strategy will depend on subsequent recordings. If nothing too substantial is revealed, Tusk may be able to regain control of the situation and defend his cabinet before parliament.

In the long run, much also depends on the poll ratings of Tusk’s PO.

If they take a dive due to the wiretapping scandal, the prime minister will find it hard to maintain a safe majority in parliament.

The next electoral test is meant to be local elections in November. If PO loses these, the government may not last until the general election scheduled for autumn 2015.

Poland keen on economic post in EU commission

Amid speculation about whether the Polish FM will become the EU's next head of diplomacy, Warsaw is more keen on an economically weightier post in the next EU commission.

Time for EU energy union, says Polish PM

The European Union must create an energy union to secure its supply and reduce its dependence on Russian gas, Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said.

Brussels denies having no 'concern' on Spain's amnesty law

The Spanish government remains secretive about its negotiations with pro-independence Catalans, but claims the EU Commission has "zero concerns" about their proposed amnesty law for Catalan separatists. The EU executive denies that.

Opinion

'Pay or okay?' — Facebook & Instagram vs the EU

Since last week, Mark Zuckerberg's Meta corporation is forcing its European users to either accept their intrusive privacy practices — or pay €156 per year to access Facebook and Instagram without tracking advertising.

Latest News

  1. Israel's EU ambassador: 'No clean way to do this operation'
  2. Brussels denies having no 'concern' on Spain's amnesty law
  3. Dubai's COP28 — a view from the ground
  4. Germany moves to criminalise NGO search-and-rescue missions
  5. Israel recalls ambassador to Spain in new diplomatic spat
  6. Migrant return bill 'obstructed' as EU states mull new position
  7. Paris and Berlin key to including rape in gender-violence directive
  8. What are the big money debates at COP28 UN climate summit?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us