The PiS government is refiguring Poland’s foreign policy, even if much of its stressing Polish “sovereignty” is for domestic consumption. With Brexit looming, however, old and new questions need answers.

© REUTERS/Kacper Pempel

Last November Poland’s new prime minister spoke to the press in front of a row of flags – just Polish ones, as the EU flags had been removed. Beata Szydlo of the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), which had won the parliamentary elections a month earlier, explained that from now on her press conferences would be held “against a backdrop of the most beautiful white and red flags.” This gesture was largely forgotten in the months that followed, yet it set the tone for the new Polish government’s foreign policy, with its newfound emphasis on “sovereignty”. As the EU heads toward Brexit and potential reform, this is the word Poland’s partners in Europe can expect to hear…

Read more in the Berlin Policy Journal App – September/October 2016 issue.

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