Saturday, April 16, 2016
Maestro A (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
The paper will analyze the political discourse and public opinion in Poland regarding the role of Germany in Europe. Departing from the concept of semi-hegemon the paper explores how Germany was framed and reframed in the Polish discourses in the years 2005-2015. In particular, the paper takes into account the nodal points of the German-Polish relations (e.g. Polish elections in 2005, 2007 Lisbon Treaty negotiations of 2007) as well as recent nodal points of European integration (sovereign debt crisis, Ukraine-Russia War and the migration crisis). The paper is especially interested in changes of how Germany has been framed between two extreme positions as a threatening hegemon (2005-2007) and a rescuer of Europe (2011) and reasons for the changes. The paper will analyze public speeches of politicians, political manifestos, policy papers of thinks tanks as well as national surveys on Polish view on Germany’s role in Europe and German-Polish relations. It will attempt to trace back the changes in the Polish political discourse and public opinion on Germany to changes in domestic politics of Poland, the asymmetrical pressures of the European crises and the growing relevance of Poland within the European Union. Against this background, the paper will challenge the notion of semi-hegemony or reluctant hegemony of Germany as imprecise and attempt to develop alternative concepts based on the external perception of Germany in Poland.
