Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski on October 25 publicly denounced the PiS convention, calling its rhetoric a threat to sovereignty, accusing it of adopting “Putinist propaganda”.
Sikorski Criticizes PiS Statements
On October 25, Radosław Sikorski criticised statements from PiS intellectuals that the West is a greater threat to Polish sovereignty than Russia, and that, according to “Putinist propaganda,” it is responsible for the invasion of Ukraine. He argued that while the supposedly rotten West imposes sanctions on Russia, it also supplies weapons and plans a military coalition of willing participants – a view he dismissed as far from reality.
Wildstein’s Claims About the West
Bronisław Wildstein, who moderated a panel on the first day of the PiS convention titled “Who are Poles? Our national identity in the face of contemporary cultural and civilizational challenges,” presented remarks stating that the weakness of the West, “stirred by the ideology of emancipation,” forced Russia to attack Ukraine. He further claimed that this is a step by the Kremlin to regain its former imperial position. Wildstein described the “ideology of emancipation” as a left‑liberal, anti‑Western civilization doctrine and warned that Western civilization is threatened, arguing that its specific character stems from a system of states that developed it.
Reaction and Shock Among Polish Journalists
Patryk Michalski of Wirtualna Polska reacted skeptically to Wildstein’s claims, questioning whether Russians started killing Ukrainians due to Western weakness and whether the war began because of “the ideology of emancipation.” He noted that Wildstein also spoke about challenges to Poland’s independence and identity, while warning of a “new totalitarianism” that conceivably is less repressive but manifests its violence mainly symbolically. Michalski highlighted Wildstein’s assertion that the concept of freedom increasingly leads to its restriction.
