HEIDELBERG, Germany (AP) — Poland’s prime minister warned Monday that Europe may see “revolts” if the European Union, of which his country is a member, turns into a “super-state government” that ignores national differences.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was giving a speech at the university in Heidelberg, in Germany, about the challenges facing the continent where he said Ukraine is fighting Russia’s invasion to protect core European values of freedom.
“I warn all those who want to create a super-state government by a narrow elite: if we ignore cultural differences the outcome will be the weakening of Europe and a series of revolts,” Morawiecki said.
The war has placed Europe at a “historic turning point” where it has to prove its strength that comes from the diversity of its nations, he argued.
“In Europe nothing can safeguard the nations, their culture, their social, economic, political and military security better than nation states,” Morawiecki said. “Other systems are illusory or utopian.”
Poland’s right-wing government is at odds with Brussels on issues including the rule of law and judicial independence, and insists that the EU has too much say on matters regarding the individual interests of its 27 members.
“We need a Europe that is strong because of its nation states, not one built on their ruins,” Morawiecki insisted in his more-than-hour-long lecture.
He also likened Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to Nazi Germany’s leader Adolf Hitler, described him as a “fascist” and argued that Europe has “a duty to oppose Russian fascism.”
Ukraine’s neighbor, Poland, has been among the nations most strongly supporting Kyiv with military, political and humanitarian assistance in the war that has entered its second year.
“The defeat of Ukraine would be the defeat of the West, indeed of the entire free world” and would “dramatically change” the world, Morawiecki said.
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