[1]
By Stanislas Balcerac, Warsaw, translated and annotated by John Helmer
@bears_with [2]
In the one hundred-year old Czech satire of the simpleminded conscript in the Austro-Hungarian army of World War I, Jaroslav Hasek’s hero, the good soldier Schweik, has come to display through his stupidity what the Czechs today say goes [3] “further in defining the Czechs in the 20th century than perhaps anyone else.”
Thinking aloud, Schweik says things like: “All along the line, everything in the army stinks of rottenness. Up till now the wide-eyed masses haven’t woken up to it. With goggling eyes they let themselves be made into mincemeat and then when they’re struck by a bullet they just whisper, ‘Mummy!’ Heroes don’t exist, only cattle for the slaughter and the butchers in the general staffs. But in the end everybody will mutiny and there will be a fine shambles. Long live the army! Goodnight!” That last line wasn’t wishful thinking. It was sarcasm and satire of the propaganda of 1921 [4].
The Czechs are still kidding themselves: when it comes to fighting their war against Russia, Schweik is no longer a conscript private, he’s a well-paid volunteer General Staff officer commuting between Prague, Rzeszów, and Lvov.
In Poland today, ruled by the Civic Coalition [5] (formerly Civic Platform, Platforma Obywatelska, PO) party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski (lead images, left and centre), there is no shortage of propaganda from them; no lack of satirical laughter at what they say. The more of that there is, however, the more desperately Tusk and Sikorski crave attention, especially abroad where the dynamics of Polish politics are unknown and both of them ignored.
The good soldier Tusk says [6] things like: “We must be aware that this is our war, because the war in Ukraine is only part of this ghastly project that appears in the world from time to time. And the goal of this political project is always the same. How to enslave nations, how to take away freedom from individual people, what to do to make authoritarianism, despotism, cruelty, lack of human rights triumph. If we lose this war, the consequences will affect not only our generation, but also future generations. In Poland, throughout Europe, in the United States, everywhere in the world.”
Bad joke — cue recorded applause, spontaneous laughter.
“More and more bread is missing, it is Donald Tusk who proposes more games” – on October 29 that’s what the opposition Polish portal wpolityce.pl [7] said about the Polish prime minister. A few days earlier, Business Insider [8], owned by the German Axel Springer group, wrote: “in the middle of the term of the Tusk government, the balance of fulfilled promises looks rather modest. Most of the most important ones from a financial point of view remain unfulfilled and everything indicates that this will not change for the next few years.” The government-run radio Polskeradio24 [9] reported in mid-October that in two years Tusk has fulfilled just 19 out of the 100 promises he announced in his election campaign of 2023.
Under Tusk, the budget deficit and national debt are growing [10]. The latest figures from the Central Statistical Office and Eurostat show that by the end of 2025, the budget deficit may exceed 7% of GDP, and public debt is the fastest growing in the European Union (EU). The EU’s prudential limit for the deficit/GDP ratio is 3%; for the debt/GDP ratio, 60%.
POLAND’S BUDGET DEFICIT IS THE SECOND LARGEST IN THE EU, 2021-24
[11]“In 2024, all Member States, except Denmark (+4.5%), Ireland and Cyprus (both +4.3%), Greece (+1.3%), Luxembourg (+1.0) and Portugal (+0.7%), reported a deficit. The highest deficits were recorded in Romania (‑9.3%), Poland (-6.6%), France (‑5.8%) and Slovakia (-5.3%). Twelve Member States had deficits equal to or higher than 3% of GDP.” Source: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/ [12].
RATIO OF GOVERNMENT GROSS DEBT TO GDP IN THE EURO AREA, Q1 2025
[13]Source: https://www.eunews.it/en/2025/04/22/euro-area-public-debt-at-87-4-percent-of-gdp/ [14] “Member states must comply with budgetary discipline on the basis of criteria and reference values set in the EU Treaties: their deficit should not exceed 3% of their gross domestic product (GDP) and their debt should not exceed 60% of their GDP. All member states have to respect these Treaty reference values [10]”.
Unemployment is also on the rise, with rates already close to the European average. “Poland is shrinking” – this summarizes the economic situation of the country’s weekly trade union Solidarity in its latest publication [15].
It is the same with France and Germany. Macron and Merz try to cover their weakness and their failures with agitation and war rhetoric on the international stage. They want to be guarantors of Ukraine’s security while at the same time they are unable to provide internal security for their own citizens (thousands of soldiers have been patrolling the streets of France for a decade). Tusk is trying the same manoeuvre but starting from a much worse position.
Poland’s biggest ally Trump ignores Tusk’s initiative. Macron and Merz publicly humiliate Tusk. Macron and Merz transformed the format of the Weimar Triangle (France, Germany, Poland) into a quadrangle, inviting Starmer to join them. In the Weimar Quadrangle, cunningly called the Weimar-Plus Triangle, Tusk’s position is clearly marginalized. What is memorable is their joint spring pilgrimage to Kiev this year, during which Merz, Macron and Starmer took cheerful photos in the lounge car, while Tusk traveled alone in another car, and in the morning on the platform in Kiev he was greeted by Ukrainians separately.
MAY 2025 – MERZ, STARMER AND MACRON ARE MET AT KIEV STATION BY ANDREI YERMAK
[16]Source: https://www.wprost.pl/swiat/12013531/dlaczego-donald-tusk-jechal-do-kijowa-w-osobnym-wagonie-ukraincy-tlumacza.html [17]
BUT TUSK ALIGHTS ALONE AND THROUGH THE SECOND–CLASS RAIL CARRIAGE DOOR
[18]Source: https://www.wprost.pl/swiat/12013531/dlaczego-donald-tusk-jechal-do-kijowa-w-osobnym-wagonie-ukraincy-tlumacza.html [17] The Polish press reported the allied leaders’ visit to Kiev by headlining: “Tusk in one carriage, the other leaders in another. The Ukrainian side explains… [According to a Warsaw official] initially only the leaders of France and Great Britain were supposed to go to Kiev. Later, the German Chancellor joined, and at the very end Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The same source added that an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers was held in Lvov on May 9, and the number of special railway wagons owned by Ukraine was limited. Tusk's place on the train was therefore explained by logistical reasons.” On the return journey Polish media publish a video of a bus trip with Zelensky in which Merz with outstretched finger told Tusk to go back to the station himself.
VOTING INTENTION OF POLES TOWARDS THE MAIN PARTIES, ONE YEAR
[19]For enlarged view, click on source: https://www.politico.eu/europe-poll-of-polls/poland/ [20]
Criticized in Poland and ignored abroad, Tusk is desperate to attract attention. In a recent interview with the UK’s Sunday Times [21] titled “Donald Tusk: Ukraine is ready to fight on for three more years,” the Prime Minister declared that “Poland’s success and moral authority entitle him to the role of geopolitical leader… the Polish way of thinking should become the pan-European way”. This is political elephantiasis in its purest form.
“President Zelensky told me on Thursday that he hopes the war will not last 10 years, but Ukraine is ready to fight for another 2-3 years,” Tusk said, adding, “Now the most important question is how many more victims we will suffer.”
It is hard to see what kind of sacrifice Tusk would make himself. In the military plans of the first Tusk government which were revealed by the political opposition – the Vistula defence plan of 2011 [22] — it was clear that in the event of a Russian attack, the Tusk government was ready to surrender without a fight the entire eastern part of Poland up to the Vistula, even though the river was supposed to be the national line of defence. Of course, it’s no surprise that Tusk’s home in Sopot and Sikorski’s residence in Chobielin are situated on the western side of the Vistula River. Tusk’s 2011 Defence Plan therefore did not involve any sacrifice on their part.
[23]Left: Click on source for enlarged view. https://militarnyi.com/en/news/poland-planned-to-surrender-40-of-its-territories-in-case-of-russian-invasion/ [22] Reporting on the details of the plan, the Polish media reported their sources as saying that on the fifth day of the projected conflict, “the enemy was on the Vistula line, battles were underway for Warsaw, and strategic ports were blocked or captured.” As a result of the command and CP exercises, Poland’s air force and navy were destroyed despite NATO’s support [22].”
Tusk’s bombastic statements about the failure of Germany to extradite the Ukrainian perpetrators of the Nord Stream attack [24], which Russian politicians have considered a “provocation”, are just “opportunistic hot air and a pose for their own political use”, the Warsaw press has said. “Just like Sikorsky. Verbal fencing does not cost Tusk anything personally, he remembers that two of the most ardent German advocates of war with Russia, Green Party politicians Robert Habeck [25] and Annalena Baerbock [26], have already exfiltrated out of Germany across the Atlantic to the United States. Tusk himself was once exfiltrated to Brussels in 2014 when the ground began to burn under his feet after the scandal with the publication of secret tape recordings of his political colleagues in Warsaw restaurants [27]; there was also talk at the time about the recordings in which Tusk himself was featured.
In his Sunday Times interview [21], Tusk “warned” Britain that it could no longer live in the “sweet illusion” that it would be spared in the event of a war between NATO states and Russia, and stressed that if Moscow deployed Oreshnik ballistic missiles on the territory of Belarus or in Kaliningrad, it could easily launch a nuclear warhead aimed at any European capital, including London. A few days after these warnings by Tusk, on October 27 the Polish media reported that the government’s Main Traffic Inspectorate (GITD) gave permission to launch a new bus connection from Kaliningrad to Warsaw. The first news of this was reported – with satisfaction — by the Russian regional media. Is Tusk the strategist making it easier for Russian engineers to travel to NATO, to Poland?
[28]Tusk’s contradictions are the same with Belarus. After threatening the British with Oreshnik missiles from the territory of Belarus, last week Tusk announced that Poland would reopen two border crossings with Belarus – at Bobrowniki-Berestowice and Kuznica-Bruzgi. Tusk’s government says the move is intended primarily to serve the humanitarian and economic needs of the border region, which has been grappling with the consequences of the crossing closures for the past two years. The Kuźnica-Bruzgi road crossing was closed by the Polish side in November 2021 due to the migration crisis at the border caused by Belarus.
In contrast, the Bobrovniki–Berestovica road crossing was suspended for traffic on February 10, 2023. Then in May last year, a young soldier, Mateusz Sitek, was killed on the border with Belarus, stabbed by an unidentified individual from the Belarusian side [29]. This act of aggression did not provoke any reaction from the Tusk government.
Tusk’s warmongering is a pure bluff for political purposes aimed at maintaining power for as long as he can. The Polish army was rearmed by the previous Law and Justice party (PiS) government. The Tusk Government has been holding back rather than accelerating implementation of arms deals signed by PiS. The PiS government’s planned investment in a new airport in central Poland, the so-called Central Communication Port (CPK), is not moving forward. The NATO logistics airport in Poland, Rzeszow Jasionka, is close to the Ukrainian border and is much more difficult to defend against possible Russian air attacks than the CPK would be. Tusk can posture in interviews, but his words do not translate into actions — you can even say that his actions contradict what he says.
[30]Source: https://www.nik.gov.pl/en/news/central-communication-port-expensive-construction-mistakes.html [31]
Between the airport in Rzeszow and the border of Ukraine lies Przemyśl, a major industrial city, hub of land transport to Ukraine, connected by rail tracks of Russian-width standards. In Przemyśl too, there is a monument to the Good Soldier Schweik, as the last part of his adventures took place in that city 110 years ago. The Good Soldier Schweik became famous for such strategic analyses as, for example: “as it was there, so it was there, it has never been so, that somehow it was not”. Every year the Association of Friends of the Good Soldier Schweik organizes the Great Schweik manoeuvres in the Przemyśl Fortress.
It will be fitting for the patron of honour over these manoeuvres to be awarded to the Good Soldier Tusk. Cue laughter – no joke.
Endnote: In the lead image, right, there is the newly elected President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki. The PiS party candidate, he narrowly defeated the Tusk party candidate, Rafał Trzaskowski, 50.9% to 49.1%. A historian by education and work experience, Nawrocki is more reserved towards Ukraine; in part this is because of the unresolved issue of the exhumation of Polish victims of the Wolyn genocide perpetrated by Ukrainians in 1943 [32]. Contrary to Tusk and Sikorski, Nawrocki thinks in terms of “Poland and Poles first” (Po pierwsze Polska, po pierwsze Polac) and has five years before him (the next presidential election is in 2030), so he does not need to resort to desperate rhetoric measures like Tusk and Sikorski. Nawrocki’s election on June 1 has also triggered an internal challenge within the Civic Coalition by Sikorski to replace Tusk and become prime minister himself.
Authors: Since 2014 Stanislas Balcerac (Warsaw) and John Helmer (Moscow) have collaborated in investigative journalism on Polish politics. They have focused in particular on the money which Radosław Sikorski and his American wife, Anne Applebaum -- the Sicklebaums -- have received (and attempted to hide) for their warmaking between Poland and Russia. Read the 28-report archive here [33]. Balcerac regularly publishes in Polish weekly magazines. In 2019, he wrote a book entitled “Walka o pieniądze czyli kto okradł Polskę” (“The Fight for Money, or Who Robbed Poland”) about the pathologies of Poland's transformation [34]. In 1988, he received The International Herald Tribune's Centennial Scholarship from the newspaper's publisher Lee Huebner. In the 1990s, Balcerac worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.