It was expected to be a year, yet enabling Berlin and Warsaw to introduce bilateral relations to a new, higher level. After the parliamentary elections in Germany and the presidential elections in Poland, it was expected that the political calendar would let for more ambitious Polish-German projects and closer cooperation.
However, the reality has again written its own script, and the balance sheet for 2025 in Polish-German relations is not the best. Again we talk about disappointed hopes, but besides – what is fresh – about troublesome rhetoric from another directions than before.
A Promising Start
In February, an accelerated election to the Bundestag was held in Germany, which was won by the chadecia, and Friedrich Merz managed to make with the Social Democrats as a unchangeable coalition.
The Chancellor paid a visit to Poland on the first day after his oath, during which Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced "new opening" in relations with Germany. – possibly the most crucial in the past of the last fewer years – said the Polish head of government.
Merz and Tusk have known each another for a long time, and their parties are in the same European household (EPP). Therefore, it was expected that there would be good chemistry between politicians, in contrast to the alternatively cool relation between Tusk and erstwhile Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
And while Tusk and Merz actually seem to be getting along well, national policy is invariably a burden for bilateral relations.
Berlin tightens border controls
The issue of migration was firmly placed on the Chancellor's first visit to Poland. Berlin has decided to tighten up controls at German borders and to send asylum seekers from them. In this regard, there was a clear disagreement between the German Chancellor and the Polish Prime Minister.
Merz, under force from the anti-immigrant AfD party, promised his voters to tighten the course towards migrants. However, the imagination of refugees from the mediate East sent to Poland by German police was unacceptable for Warsaw. specified pictures would be a gift to the right-wing opposition in the country, which has already started a communicative on social media about alleged mass deportations to Poland of refugees from Germany. In consequence to the Berlin movement, the Polish side besides introduced border controls.
Perhaps the border hysteria created by PiS and Robert Bąkiewicz helped win the presidential election to the right. The triumph of Karol Nawrocki on 1 June yet buried the script that 2025 would bring about a flourishing relation with Germany.
Instead in the Polish-German agenda again quite a few space began to take distant the hard past surrounded by unpleasant anti-memetic rhetoric. Interestingly, Donald Tusk not only gave up giving her resistance, but began to talk a language associated with his political opponents to Germany.
Again Failed Expectations
Deputy manager of the German Institute of Polish Affairs in Darmstadt Dr Agnieszka Łada-Kofefal estimates that the past year was a period of partial stagnation. “This is the year of many unfulfilled hopes and many hurtful speeches, which spoil common relations,” he says in an interview with DW.
According to the researcher, there was no clear strengthening of Polish-German cooperation. In addition, the right inactive enjoyed anti-German slogans, even in the context of migration.
– Germany was shown in Poland as a country that wants to intentionally make difficulties, makes Poland angry, gets free of its problem at the expense of Poland. The government party, in turn, gave in to this rhetoric and left it open space, not negating certain statements, but speaking in a akin spirit.
Agnieszka Lada-Konefal adds that any statements from the government camp are associated with the long-lost times in Polish-German relations or with the rhetoric of the right. “This is surely a large problem,” he says.
Who's talking?
The rhetorical shift of Donald Tusk to the right was peculiarly clear in fresh weeks. On 1 December, during the Polish-German government consultations in Berlin, the Polish Prime Minister stated at a press conference that Poland's resignation of the reparations from Germany in the 1950s was not a sovereign decision and is not considered an act in accordance with the will of the Polish people.
“For the nation of Poland had nothing to say on this substance (...) We believe that Poland did not receive compensation for losses and crimes from the Second planet War," he said.
A year and a half earlier, in precisely the same place, but standing next to Chancellor Scholz, Tusk sounded different. "In a formal, legal sense, the global issue of reparation was closed many years ago. The issue of moral, financial, material redress was never realized, not due to Chancellor Scholz and not due to me," he said in February 2024.
The speech of the Prime Minister in Wałbrzych from mid-December may besides attest to the change of rhetoric, erstwhile during the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the integration of western and northern lands into Poland the Prime Minister perored about the "recovered lands". The event took place under the motto "Here is Poland", and within it was signed "Piastowska Declaration".
How's the PiS?
Prof. Klaus Bachmann, a political scientist from the Warsaw University of SWPS, sees in the government's actions the continuation of the policy towards Germany conducted during the time of the Law and Justice and not only in the rhetorical layer.
“In any cases, the Tusk government is even more effective than the PiS government. A clear example is the thought of introducing border controls in retaliation for German checks. Even the PiS did not come up with this – says DW.
According to the scientist ruling the Polish coalition, however, there is nothing to gain from the effort to prosecute with the right on who is more distant from Germany. Klaus Bachmann believes that this is not a way to win any additional voters, but it is simply a way to deter the more average ones.
On both sides of the border, both in Germany and Poland, politicians have contracted a illness that makes them believe that right-wing populist parties can be weakened, being more populist than they are. But it's a road to nowhere – he estimates.
When asked about Berlin's attitude towards Warsaw in the passing year, the political scientist says briefly: inactive disrespectful. She mentions in this context even the procedures for creating a monument to Polish war victims in Berlin. “If things go incorrect in specified tiny cases, we can imagine what large things look like,” he adds.
Year Not Completely Lost
However, the passing year cannot be completely written off. fresh months have brought any strong accents in Polish-German defence cooperation. German Patriot rocket launchers have guarded the sky over Podkarpacie, German fighters aid defender Polish airspace, and German bomb squads will shortly support the construction of fortifications on the Polish border with Belarus and Russia.
During the government consultation in Berlin, a declaration was adopted which is full of assurances about the will to further deepen cooperation in the field of defence. 1 circumstantial point is the creation of a working group at the level of defence ministries. Transport ministries are besides to be consulted to coordinate urgent investments in upgrading cross-border infrastructure. This is besides crucial for the defence of the country.
Agnieszka Lada-Konefal counts defence cooperation as affirmative for the past year. – The fact that German Patriots were stationed in Poland was truly important. This is simply a very circumstantial aspect of this cooperation, which gives hope for the future. It is worth emphasizing that in key issues this cooperation exists and is possibly not visible enough," he says.
In her opinion, economical matters besides attract Polish-German relations upwards. The business and economical spheres inactive give signs that it was a good year, and Poland is more and more economically crucial for Germany.
In the last fewer months, we cannot neglect to mention the resolution adopted by the Bundestag calling for the government to rapidly build a appropriate monument to Polish war victims in Berlin, which will replace the makeshift boulder erected in June. During the government consultation in December, Poland was besides handed over valuable cultural goods robbed by the Germans during the occupation.
Another image of Poland
Looking back on the year that passed, it is besides worth noting an exceptionally large number of flattering publications on the pace and level of Poland's development, which appeared in German media. It was possible to read about the Polish economical miracle, or even Poland as a model for Germany. There were even articles in which Polish wine was delighted.
The fact that the image of Poland in Germany is changing, and for the better, confirms the consequence of the last cyclical survey in the series Barometer Polska-Germany. It clearly reduces the reluctance of Germans to Poles, while at the same time the acceptance of Poles as neighbours, colleagues or even household members increases.
Unfortunately, it cannot be said about Poles' sympathy for Germans. This falls, and the level of aversion to the western neighbour climbs the unseen levels for decades. This is most likely the saddest Polish-German news of the year.
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