Controlled Borders, Ability to Pass National Laws Define State Sovereignty

In response to a Brussels judiciary Diktat, a Polish court ruled that the nation’s constitution is supreme law of the land, overriding all foreign legal strictures.

The EU went ballistic. It is an ongoing issue of sovereignty.

What is a sovereign nation?

In 1948, when prompted to opine about the legal nature of nascent Israel, an American diplomat, Phillip Jessup, responded that for an independent state to exist there must be a people, a territory, a government, and a capacity to deal with other states.

Israel qualified.

In 1998 John Laughland was more succinct.

Sovereignty means set borders and an ability to pass laws by a national parliament.

Getting rid of either borders or the ability to pass laws undercuts both state sovereignty and liberal democracy. And Laughland found the EU guilty on both counts.

Poland’s constitutional tribunal affirmed that the Polish state was sovereign.

That was stating the obvious. It should thus not have upset anyone, but it did for the ruling violated "the European idea” of centralization and homogenization under Brussels. "You are playing with fire," the Poles have been warned.

The current Law and Justice (PiS) government of Poland adheres to the idea of a "Europe of nations." Accordingly, nations continue to retain their independence, while belonging to a federative association.

But the Eurocrats argue for a union, and not a federation.

Nebulous "regions" are preferable to nation states. Nationalism is demonized in the EU. In particular, nationalism of small states has no raison d’etre. Brussels, like the Borg, warns us: surrender; resistance is futile; you will be absorbed.

The Poles, Czechs, Spanish, French, and even Germans and others beg to differ.

In fact, most European nation states, at one point of another, had their courts rule that their national laws superseded EU legislation. Germany just had a court case in April of this year that explicitly said so.

So what’s the big bruhaha all about? The European leaders almost uniformly condemned the Poles. The French chimed in as a German mouthpiece, of course. Even Americans have been warned about the truculence of Warsaw and its alleged Polexit.

The offensive is aimed primarily to help Poland’s liberal and leftist Europhoric opposition. The Law and Justice government is the whipping boy.

The opposition and the Eurocrats accuse it of wanting to extricate Poland out of the EU: hence, the Polexit. And they took to the streets over the last weekend.

There were perhaps 40,000 demonstrators nationwide, including perhaps 16,000 in Warsaw. The opposition claimed 100,000 protesting in the capital city alone.

The problem is that the charges of Polexit are bogus. The PiS cabinet is pro-EU. It usually caves to most demands from Brussels.

Like most Poles, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wants Poland to remain in the EU. Hence, he charged the opposition with mendacity about "Polexit." They simply disagree with some of the most blatant violations of national sovereignty.

But the court ruling too much for both the opposition and its claqueurs in Brussels. So they invented "the Polexit" non-issue to bash the government with.

The following Twitter exchange between the European Parliament President David Sassoli and the Polish Deputy Minister of Justice Marcin Romanowski is priceless for it encapsulates the nature of the tiff:

Sassoli: "We stand in solidarity with the people of Poland who raise their voices for Europe today. The huge pro-European majority of Polish citizens must have their views heard and respected."

Romanowski: "How about respecting views of the majority of Polish citizens with regards to the reform of judiciary which the EU is trying to block unlawfully. Poland wants to be a part of the EU. It's the EU who doesn't want independent States in its structure."

The EU, of course, has threatened to cut off its disbursement of funds to Poland. The PiS government responded angrily. Instead of micromanaging Poland, "Brussels should concentrate on security, stopping terrorism, economic collaboration with other countries."

From the point of view of American national security, it is all a superfluous side show. As an American observer has correctly pointed out, there are more important things: "Let’s strengthen NATO’s eastern flank; starting in Poland."

Nonetheless, the EU chronicles of hysteria will continue until Poland elects a liberal government that will obediently do the biddings of Brussels.

Let’s hope that will take a long time, if at all.

For now, Poland controls its borders and passes national legislation that overrides foreign judicial interference. And that’s sovereignty.