I would like to sincerely congratulate the future Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, and his government on today’s election! The majority of Polish society demonstrated their desire for a change of government at the parliamentary elections on 15 October. This has just been confirmed by the Sejm.

We now have an opportunity to inject fresh impetus into German-Polish relations and to open a new chapter in our ties. It is important that we strengthen our civil societies and reinforce their links with each other in order to make them more resilient – against populism and against those who call into question our reconciliation and friendship.

Those places where our cooperation is most tangible, namely in the border regions, are also of vital importance. We now have to look very closely to see what we can do to further enhance the ties between these regions – whether it be transport links and infrastructure or in the health sector.

During my talks in Warsaw after the elections, those I spoke with said time and again “Poland is back”. And that is good, for we need a committed and strong Poland – for the support and reconstruction of Ukraine, in the EU, in NATO, in the Weimar Triangle together with France and, of course, in our bilateral relations. We are facing major challenges and are glad to have Poland by our side, a strong partner on whom we can count.

However, we are not only looking at Poland but also at ourselves: we want to strengthen Poland’s confidence in us Germans. For in many issues we have to look closer to home and reflect honestly on the last few years. We know that Germany’s policy on East-Central Europe, Germany’s policy on Russia has disappointed many people – not only in Poland but especially in Poland. However, Russia’s attack against Ukraine finally made us in Berlin realise that the security of Central and Eastern Europe is key to Germany’s security. We in Europe have a shared responsibility to ensure security.