Polish PM attacks previous German energy policy

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki condemned Germany's previous energy policy on Monday, saying former chancellor Gerhard Schröder had endangered all of Europe with his Russia-friendly stance.

Morawiecki, who was giving a speech about Europe in the German university city of Heidelberg, said European nations need to focus on their national identities, not the European super state.

Morawiecki said policies like "change through trade" had proven to be a disaster for the continent.

The policy, known in German as "Wandel durch Handel" and supported by decades of German leaders, is based on the belief that Russia could be encouraged to reform by tying its economy to those of the West.

Politicians who believed that had made a terrible mistake, which was now becoming apparent, the Polish prime minister said.

"It is a failure not to listen to the voices of those countries that were right about Putin," he said. "It is giving power to people like Gerhard Schröder, who made Europe dependent on Russia and put the whole continent at existential risk."

Morawiecki stressed the need for nation states, using Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an example as to why this is important.

"Our basic identity is national identity. I am a European because I am a Pole, a Frenchman, a German, not because I deny my Polishness or Germanness," he said.

Likewise, he said, Ukrainians are fighting for their country, not for a superstate.

"Russian propaganda claims that there is no such thing as a separate Ukrainian nation," he said. "We all know the saying: ‘if the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.’ That is why Russia is trying to explain to Ukrainians, by force, that they have no right to a national identity."

Of course was is possible to support nations through organizations such as the EU. But nation states can never be replaced; especially in times of political crises, they are indispensable, Morawiecki argued.

Poland is one of Ukraine's top supporters, both militarily and in humanitarian terms, having taken in 1.5 million refugees from its war-torn neighbour.