Germany and Poland plan closer cooperation despite recent election
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul and his Polish counterpart Radosław Sikorski plan to advance cooperation between their two countries despite the victory of eurosceptic Karol Nawrocki in the Polish presidential election.
"I assume that we will continue to work together very closely and amicably," Wadephul said on Wednesday during a meeting with Sikorski in Berlin.
"Our ties are so strong that democratic elections here or there do not call them into question in any way."
The cooperation also applies to France within the Weimar Triangle, for example in coordinating support for Ukraine, Wadephul said. The trilateral group, established in 1991, includes France, Germany and Poland, and is designed to promote cooperation among the three.
Nawrocki, who was backed by the conservative nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS), had campaigned with anti-German and anti-European rhetoric.
But Wadephul said the German-Polish partnership is so close and solid that he has no doubts that joint future and defence projects could be realized. Poland, he said, had held democratic elections. Germans and Poles are friends, "and we want to continue that," the German foreign minister added.
Sikorski: Government controls foreign policy
Sikorski described it as a sign of democracy that a representative of the opposition had won the presidential election in Poland. Similar to Germany, the president in Poland is not the head of government but a representative of the country abroad. He implements the policies set by the government.
While the Polish president has more powers than the German president, including a veto right, "foreign policy is the responsibility of the government," Sikorski said.
Wadephul: Defence and infrastructure are key topics
Wadephul highlighted European air defence as a security guarantee for citizens and the advancement of European defence cooperation as key areas for expanding collaboration. This, he said, requires "concrete projects, industrial partnerships and political will that does not stop at national borders."
A resilient Europe, he added, also requires efficient infrastructure. Roads, railways and bridges are "not just transport routes but lifelines for our security, including between Germany and Poland." At the same time, these investments would tangibly improve the daily lives of people in Poland, Germany and across Europe, he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
‘I don't know why the president has this problem': Trump had a history of disparaging Haiti and Haitians before the travel ban
So when Haiti was included late Wednesday in a list of countries on which Trump was imposing a near-total travel ban, some saw a culmination of a long campaign against the population. Advertisement 'Donald Trump has been very consistent in his anti-Black racism, both domestically and globally, and when it comes to the country of Haiti, the people of Haiti, he has a long track record of vile, offensive, harmful rhetoric and policies,' said Boston Representative Ayanna Pressley, who co-chairs the congressional Haiti Caucus. 'It is just purely evil.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Florida Democratic Representative Maxwell Frost, who is of Haitian descent, echoed Pressley's comment that the travel ban is 'rooted in bigotry.' 'It does nothing to make our communities safer, but it does vilify immigrants,' Frost said in a statement. 'It will devastate our immigrant families across this country.' In response to Pressley's accusations, the White House called her assertions 'lazy, unfounded and just straight-up false.' Advertisement 'While President Trump is fulfilling his promise to unite the country and keep the American people safe, Pressley is desperate to divide us and smearing our heroic law enforcement officials in the process,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement, pointing to the rationale listed in the ban. Haiti is one of 12 countries facing a near-total ban on travel to the United States under Trump's new order, which cites an inability to vet immigrants for national security risks and a high rate of people overstaying their visas as justification for the measure. There are limited exceptions, including current visa-holders, permanent residents, dual nationals, athletic teams, and certain immediate family members of US residents. Other countries affected include Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. The move follows several other Trump administration actions that have had an impact on the Haitian community in the United States, including an early end to Temporary Protected Status protections for an estimated through the appeals process. Trump made similar moves in his first administration though most were ultimately blocked by the courts. The United States first granted Haitian migrants protection from deportation after the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country. Since then, a string of natural disasters and political conflicts have worsened conditions. Today, gang violence, crime, and instability are rampant on the island. Advertisement Amid the worsening situation, many Haitians sought refuge in the United States or came to join family here, either through the CHNV program, legal avenues, or without permission. Massachusetts has the third-largest population of Haitians in the US, including an estimated 15,000 who held TPS, But the influx of migration from Haiti has also spurred backlash, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, who was the only Democrat in the 2018 meeting with Trump's now-infamous comments, said he doesn't understand why Haiti seems to irk the president as it does. 'His hatred over Haiti is just impossible to explain,' Durbin said. 'I've been there many times. And this is one of the poorest nations on Earth, the poorest in our hemisphere, these people are suffering and need help, and they're wonderful people. I don't know why the president has this problem.' But Republicans defended Trump's actions and denied there was any animus behind it. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican who has backed pro-immigration policies in the past, was also in that 2018 meeting. And while Diaz-Balart declined to talk about what was said, he does not believe Trump has an issue with Haitians. Advertisement 'No, I don't,' he said. 'I really don't. I really, really don't.' His South Florida district is home to a large Haitian population and others affected by the CHNV and TPS reversals, including Cubans but he defended the travel ban. 'There are countries obviously that can't guarantee a process where we know that people are [vetted] to keep the country secure,' Diaz-Balart said. 'I don't think it's unreasonable.' Former Florida Republican Representative Carlos Curbelo, a moderate who was part of the immigration negotiations in 2018 that preceded the meeting, said Trump seems to prefer 'white-collar' immigrants or those whom Trump perceives to be have been recruited or have sufficient resources to come here. 'I don't think he understands or cares that those types of comments and campaigns unfairly mischaracterize hundreds of thousands of people at a time, and I don't think he understands that just because you're a refugee or an exile, that doesn't mean that you aren't capable of making major contributions to this country,' Curbelo said. Noting the Cuban exile community where he (and Diaz-Balart) hail from, Curbelo continued: 'It's people who had to leave their country, that was not their first choice, that was their only choice, and that doesn't preclude people from becoming exceptional Americans who do wonderful things.' Pressley, though, is convinced Trump's approach to Haitians is a concerted effort. She compared the trauma inflicted on the migrant community to the terror campaign of the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan, saying it gets harder to fight back and project optimism when the actions layer on top of each other. 'It is terrorizing. It is terrifying. It is traumatic,' Pressley said. 'And it's just so intentional. ... Singling out Haitians, I mean, he's moved in a way that is obsessive and consistently, pointedly harmful.' Advertisement Tal Kopan can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
an hour ago
- Chicago Tribune
The Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz for June 7
Happy June, quotes readers! It was a tense and smoggy week in Chicago. Immigration advocates were alerted Wednesday of people being detained at a U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement office on the Near South Side. Organizers and several aldermen went to protest, and several of them clashed with federal agents. Now, City Council members plan to have a hearing to look into the Chicago Police Department's response to the demonstration. Local immigration advocates also plan to challenge President Donald Trump's travel ban that bars or restricts travelers from 19 countries. The U.S. president spoke with several world leaders this week. After a call with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Trump said the two countries will continue their trade talks. During their phone call Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the president that he would respond to Ukraine's recent drone attacks on a Russian airfield. And in a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump suggested that pursuing peace in eastern Europe is not the best path forward right now. Amidst all of this, the relationship between the president and his former close adviser Elon Musk came to a bitter end as the two exchanged harsh words on social media, and Trump threatened to cut Starlink and SpaceX's government contracts. The Trump administration is also investigating former President Joe Biden's use of an autopen to sign pardons and other documents. Meanwhile in Chicago, Mayor Brandon Johnson pushed aldermen to add a city grocery tax as the long-established state grocery levy expires. A jury found Crosetti Brand guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of Jayden Perkins, the 11-year-old killed in a brutal 2024 attack as he tried to protect his pregnant mother. And Chicago police determined that Officer Krystal Rivera, a mother and four-year veteran of the force, was mistakenly shot and killed by a fellow cop during a confrontation with an armed suspect Thursday in the Chatham neighborhood. In Springfield, Illinois lawmakers voted to pass the state budget. The $55 billion spending plan was balanced with a combination of spending cuts and an estimated $800 million in tax increases, including hikes on tobacco products, vaping and online sportsbooks. The passage of the budget closed out a legislative session with mixed results for Gov. JB Pritzker. Jerry Reinsdorf is selling the Chicago White Sox — just not this year. On Thursday, the team announced Reinsdorf and billionaire Justin Ishbia reached a long-term investment agreement for Ishbia to obtain a controlling interest in the team by 2029 at the earliest. In other sports news, the Chicago Fire are privately financing a $650 million soccer stadium at The 78, the Chicago Sports Network is finally broadcasting on Comcast and the Chicago Sky are taking on the Indiana Fever this weekend in the first professional women's basketball game played at the United Center. But fans hoping to catch another matchup between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark will have to wait: The 2024 WNBA rookie of the year is out for a quadriceps strain. Though the forecast looks nice, you may consider spending some time indoors this weekend. Smoke from Canadian wildfires is blanketing Chicago, with the city's air quality at times ranked the worst in the U.S. That's it for the news! Test your knowledge of who said what with the Tribune's Quotes of the Week quiz from June 1 to 7. Missed last week? You can find it here or check out our past editions of Quotes of the Week.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
The Memo: Uneasy truce descends in Trump-Musk war
President Trump and Elon Musk let an uneasy truce mostly take hold Friday, a day after their previous alliance imploded in spectacular fashion. On Thursday, Musk cast innuendo on Trump's decades-old association with deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein, implying that the 'Epstein files' had not been released because they contained incriminating information about the president. Musk also contended the president would not have won last year's election against then-Vice President Kamala Harris without his help. Those jabs followed comments from Trump, during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, where he took aim at Musk. Trump asserted that Musk had grown critical of the massive budget bill making its way through Congress for selfish reasons — because it cut incentives to buy electrical vehicles such as Teslas. He also suggested the businessman was operating out of a sense of pique because the White House recently withdrew its nomination of a Musk ally, Jared Isaacman, to lead NASA. There was nothing nearly so spectacular during the day Friday — although that could change at any moment give both men's irascibility and penchant for verbal combat. Instead, Trump mostly confined himself to phone calls to TV anchors, where he expressed shoulder-shrugging lack of interest in speaking with Musk. Musk maintained his usual prolific social media posting, but mostly about topics unrelated to Trump. Still, it was hardly a full ceasefire. On his round of phone calls — none of which appeared to have been recorded for broadcast — Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News, 'Elon has totally lost it,' informed Jonathan Karl of ABC News that Musk had 'lost his mind,' and asserted to Dana Bash of CNN that 'the poor guy's got a problem.' The White House also let it be known that Trump intended to either sell or give away the Tesla he bought in March as a public display of support for Musk. Musk, among many other posts, approved of the idea advanced by another social media user that he had 'criticized Congress, not Trump. Trump then attacked Elon personally.' 'Exactly,' Musk responded. The businessman also called Trump's erstwhile chief strategist Steve Bannon 'a criminal.' Musk and Bannon have a long-running feud. But many Republicans will settle for hostilities between Trump and Musk at least not ramping up any further from their Thursday levels. Trump seems reluctant to get into an all-out verbal war with Musk, especially given the massive megaphone wielded by the world's richest man. Musk has more than 220 million followers on X, the social media platform he owns. Though unpopular with the general population, Musk has a strong hold over the younger, male-dominated online right. CBS News also reported that, despite the feud, 'there has been no effort to oust the over 100 administration officials who came from Musk's orbit.' The leveling-off of tensions will come as a relief to Republicans on Capitol Hill. Exasperation with Musk neared the boiling point Thursday, when he implied he might back the creation of an alternative party, while also lambasting Trump and congressional leaders — including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) for how far they have moved from past statements bemoaning growing deficits. The current legislation, which Trump called the 'big beautiful bill,' would increase deficits by $2.4 trillion over a decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Republican leaders are already grappling with tight math as they try to get the bill through the Senate, where the GOP has a 53-47 majority. Republican senators have expressed misgivings from different perspectives, with Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) dismayed that the legislation does not curb government spending, while others such as Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) are uneasy about changes to Medicaid that are projected to lead to millions of Americans losing health insurance. Democrats, meanwhile, are trying to turn some of the Trump-Musk chaos to their advantage. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent out a fundraising appeal telling supporters that the clash between the two men meant 'we knew our moment to get ahead had arrived.' Democratic Reps. Stephen Lynch (Mass.) and Robert Garcia (Calif.) wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel seeking more information about Musk's comments regarding Trump and Epstein. The move was first reported by Axios. The two congressmen — both of whom serve on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, with Lynch as its acting ranking member — cited Musk's contention that the 'real reason' the Epstein files had not been released was because Trump was mentioned in them. 'We ask that you immediately clarify whether this allegation is true,' the two Democrats wrote. They also requested a description of 'the role of President Donald Trump in reviewing documents pertaining to the investigation and prosecution of convicted sex offenders Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.' The White House has dismissed the request as a stunt, and many other Republicans will argue it is mischief-making. But the bigger question is whether the Trump-Musk feud will burst back into life anytime soon — and, if so, who will get caught in the blast zone.
