Poland’s Foreign Minister was caught on tape saying that Warsaw’s relationship with the United States was “worth nothing”, and used coarse and racially charged terms to describe it.  The revelation in a Polish news magazine comes at a time when Radoslaw Sikorski is said to be in contention for a senior European Union job.

The Wprost news magazine did not say how it obtained the recording.  But it was of private conversation between Sikorski and a member of parliament.  According to the transcript published in Wprost, Sikorski said, “You know that the Polish-US alliance isn't worth anything.

“It is downright harmful, because it creates a false sense of security,” Sikorski continued, “Complete bullshit.  We’ll get in conflict with the Germans, Russians and we’ll think that everything is super, because we gave the Americans a blow job.”

Heavens to Betsy!

He then described what he thought was the American view of the Polish: “Murzynskosc”.  In this context, it appears to be Polish slang for the N-word.  Yikes.

The embarrassment is deep for the government, because authorities raided the offices of Wprost last week, trying to seize the recording before it could be published.   That set off a storm of criticism about press freedoms.

Earlier Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Sikorski would be a natural candidate for the job of the EU's top diplomat, a post currently held by Baroness Catherine Ashton.