GERMAN SCENARIOS

Mirosław Piotrowski

This former chairperson of the European Parliament was alarming about the danger caused in Europe by the rightist party and the ultra-nationalists growing in power. He also mentioned Poland where, in his opinion, ‘common values are systematically undermined’. Also Hungary has suffered. At present Schulz is considering a coalition with Angela Merkel who has been governing in Germany in a ‘commissioning way’ since the election in Autumn. A high price might be demanded by the chief of the socialists for the change of the hardly convenient situation. Beside the governmental fairs, the personal programming base of Schulz was the thread of EU integration and discipline. Chancellor Merkel had already proved to be able to act and even predictively. Undisciplined countries, such as Poland and Hungary are threatened by sanctions, that is applying the known art 7 of the EU treaty. In Brussels jargon it is called ‘an atomic option’. However, even EU enthusiasts are aware that applying it may result in breaking of our heroic organization. It turns out, as one of popular German weeklies has revealed recently that this scenario has been discussed seriously by our western neighbouring countries for a long time. Two years ago the Defence Minstry elaborated an over two-page report entitled ‘Strategic prognosis 2040’. This is in case if there would be a military conflict in Europe. The document includes six possible scenarios of development of geopolitical cases. The last sixth scenario assumes a collapse of the European Union and transition to an interestingly-sounding so-called reactive mode. Undoubtedly, it is not all about pacifistic activity of Bundeswehr. In this context a lot is said about eastern countries of the European Union, although none of them is mentioned. I do not hear anything about journalists’ inquisitiveness aiming at explaining details of the document whose content is known only in the discussion form. And it does not say explicitly whether we are treated there as an ally or an opponent aspiring for superpowers of Germany. However, one can assume that implementing one of the revealed facultative military scenarios will depend on a political plot which will probably be outlined in Berlin in 2018.

Translation: Aneta Amrozik

„Niedziela” 53/2018 (31 XII 2017)

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