Polish ruling party leader accuses German envoy of 'lying to himself'

Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of Poland's ruling party, has accused the German ambassador to Poland of deceiving himself when it comes to Poland paying billions for Russian energy.

The German ambassador, Thomas Bagger, on Wednesday responded to claims by the Polish defence minister that "undoubtedly, it was German policy that made it possible for Putin to get money for his armed forces."

"Minister, do you know how many billions of zlotys Poland transferred to Moscow every year in exchange for Russian energy?" Bagger tweeted.

But Kaczyński, who leads the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, told the state-owned news broadcaster TVPInfo on Thursday that the German ambassador was "lying to himself in a very ugly way."

Kaczyński argued that Poland had been overly reliant on Russian energy as a result of its forced presence in the communist bloc, and even after adopting democracy in 1989, "the post-communist forces stayed in power for the most part of the first dozen or so years."

Kaczyński went on to say that it had been PiS that took the issue of energy independence seriously.

"Before that, decisions were made by parties that used to be very much liked in Germany, and the ambassador should be reminded of this," he said.

PiS has repeatedly accused its main rival, the centrist Civic Platform, whose government was in power in 2007-2015, of prioritising the interests of Germany and being unpatriotic.