Get real, Lukashenko
Living next door to a bellicose neighbor can be a trying experience. After so much abuse, the knee-jerk reaction is to jump over the fence and thump him, or at least give as good as you get. The other option is to say and do nothing, and that was how Poland delicately handled the latest vitriolic outburst by the unhinged President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, last week.
The oddball leader of the region's basket-case economy denounced Poland as a beachhead for an attack by NATO forces on his country. In a two-and-a-half hour speech, Lukashenko launched into his neighbor saying Poland was aiding the West in its attempt to undermine Belarus by building radar stations along its frontier. He said Poland was now home to a nest of Western spies hellbent on creating disorder in his country.
Lukashenko then added insult to injury by saying Belarus had saved Poland during World War II and that Poles should be grateful for the fact.
The Polish government, meanwhile, stayed silent, not wanting to fan the flames of Lukashenko's paranoid, xenophobic rantings.
The truth is that the only people in Poland who should be worried about the vitriole from Belarus are border traders, who could see their livelihoods dry up if relations deteriorate further. With Poland's membership of NATO and future accession to the European Union (EU), the country is looking West more than ever before. With membership of both clubs comes the comfort of collective security and a guarantee of lasting stability and prosperity in Central Europe. It's something the hapless citizens of Belarus can only look on with envy while their nation is in the grip of an authoritarian.
Ironically, EU accession is still a moot point in Poland. Many Poles simply turn a deaf ear to the continuing talks about membership, while others are actively hostile to it. When polled recently, only about 55% were in favor of joining the EU.
But accession is as essential for countries in Central Europe as membership of NATO is, and Germany is the motor behind much of these movements. Most astute German politicians realize that to have economic and political stability in the West, while ignoring the poorer countries to the East would play into the hands of nationalist autocrats like Lukashenko.
It's essential to create a politically and economically united bloc for the whole of Europe. The lunatic fringes will have to come in from the cold or be permanently locked out. As history has shown so often in the past decade or so, a downtrodden people will only take so much especially when everyone else in the neighborhood is getting rich.
