Sylvia Poggioli, a reporter for National Public Radio, took a trip to Poland, France, Germany and Italy to talk about the attitude of Europeans towards Americans, the war on Iraq, American culture and economy.

The choice of countries for her visit was not a coincidence: on one side of the fence there was France, a persistent critic of the United States, and on the other, Poland, the country most friendly towards the United States.

Among the Polish cities visited by Poggioli were Warsaw, Nowa Huta and Nowy Sacz. Nowa Huta, for Poggioli, represented a symbol of Polish society’s strong resistance to communism.

The reporter talked to Polish politicians, journalists, students, businessmen and farmers. She surveyed the cultural landscape of Polish media, commenting on MTV Poland and Radio Maryja (translator’s note: Radio Maryja is a commercial station that represents a very extreme approach to Catholicism. Polish society seems divided into two groups—strong supporters and consistent

critics of Radio Maryja.). Polish MTV was started by a former Chicago resident—Derrick Ogrodn—and is watched in about two million households by generation E. Generation E—as in Europeans—is a term for the demographic group who grew up in Poland after the fall of the communist system and are not familiar with the hardships suffered by Poles under communism. They also do not remember the Solidarity Movement. This young generation never dreamt of a free Poland and are not inspired to cultivate national traditions.

Some Poles fear Poland’s joining the European Union because they feel the high unemployment will get worse. They are also apprehensive about European bureaucracy and the flooding of the Polish market by cheap imported products.

In the reporter’s opinion the Polish would like to join the European Union but at the same time would also like to be able to sustain a friendly relationship with the United States. The clear difference of opinion between Europe and the United States worries the Polish. The sympathy towards America is strong but on the downturn. The Poles strongly supported the U.S. standpoint on their politics regarding Iraq, but were against the war. According to Konstanty Gerbert, a writer for “Gazeta Wyborcza’ (a daily) Poles feel used and humiliated by the United States. Less dramatic in his statements was the former Minister of Defense Janusz Onyszkiewicz. According to him U.S. foreign policy should become less one-sided and the United States should try to secure the support of all European countries.

In the conclusion of her report Sylvia Poggioli stresses the fact that there are growing anti-American tendencies present in all the European countries she has visited. She fears that these tendencies may be used by the political forces trying to create the new European citizen. Anti-Americanism would become a slogan strengthening the unity of the European Union and divert attention form the problems of European integration.