Political games... with the flavor of a trade war: why the Poles are trying to harm Ukraine... And not only them

Poland is afraid of becoming the Kremlin's next victim, but at the same time, Warsaw is going out of its way to reduce Kyiv's chances of winning: blocking borders and starting a trade war. This is because the electoral interests of politicians are more important than national security: the struggle for voters overcomes survival instincts.

All these "folk festivals" of carriers and now farmers are organized by the Polish right-wing radical party Confederation, which is indirectly supported by the right-wing presidential PiS of Andrzej Duda. They have stirred up anti-Ukrainian sentiment, and now they will try to regain political control of Poland.

In last year's parliamentary elections, PiS came in first, but failed to form a government because its ideological pro-Russian partner, Confederation, received too few votes. As a result, Donald Tusk became prime minister, uniting the left.

On April 7 and 21, local elections will be held in Poland, and the right-wing nationalist tandem wants to seize power at the grassroots level. Among other things, they are going to "cut" votes on the wave of Ukrainophobia: most of our citizens living or passing through Poland are unanimous: empathy has suddenly turned to hatred.

The flaw of xenophobia has long been ingrained in the mentality of Polish society. The authorities have repeatedly apologized for the genocide against Jews during World War II, but anti-Semitism has not faded away to this day. For example, one of the leaders of the Confederation, Grzegorz Braun, doused a Hanukkah candle with a fire extinguisher in the Sejm, saying that in this way he restored a state of balance and normalcy. This behavior appeals to voters: Poles have long voted for the right-wing radical Self-Defense party. Andrzej Lepper, who mobilized the rural electorate using the same methods.

The saddest thing is that the new leftist Prime Minister Tusk has also started playing this game: on the eve of the election, he is not comfortable "standing against the wind" and is passively playing along with this whole campaign.

The protest flash mob has another component besides the political one: the trade blockade of Ukraine. It would seem that Russia has nothing to do with it.

Previously, the "Protestants" talked about protecting the Polish market, but now they have suddenly changed their minds: they say that Ukrainians have pushed them out of the German and other European markets. But there is one catch: in 2023/24, Muscovites increased grain sales 2.3 times. At the moment, they sell slightly less grain to the EU than Ukraine, but... no Polish "patriot" is blocking Russian grain: the Kremlin needs to regain the markets of the European Community, and "useful idiots" are helping a lot.

An interesting fact: in 2022/23, Poland alone "passed through" 12 million tons of grain from Russia and only 4.3 million tons from Ukraine. This doesn't mean that this grain was bought in the EU, but the flows are impressive nonetheless.

In the near future, farmers from France, Germany, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Spain, etc. promise to join the Poles. But their slogans are somewhat different: they are no longer calling on Putin to put things in order with the "Banderites" and their own government, as they did in Poland. Europeans are opposed to Brussels' policy. This is a consequence of the activity of the European [far] right.

Much of the right-wing should be called not so much pro-Russian as parasites feeding on Euroscepticism. They are increasingly entering national parliaments, and the EU's economic problems allow them to rightly look for a target audience for manipulation. And in this case, it is farmers, whose hands they use to both warm up their ratings and undermine Brussels' economic policy. And in this, their interests coincide with Moscow. Although the leaders of the European right, such as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovakian Robert Fico, are openly pouring water on the mill of Putin's interests.

The main goal of this whole protest carnival is to distance themselves from Brussels, which means disrupting European unity.

The trade blockade of Ukraine is an additional pleasant bonus for the [un]secret associate and benefactor from Moscow.

The photo shows the President of Poland. The designer is a level 7 genius.