Every time major elections in Poland are coming up, there will be talk about reparations from Germany. And interestingly, each and every time the Polish politicians have brought up these reparation demands, they have never been officially submitted to Germany. They just talk very loudly about them where their intended voters can hear.
The matter of reparations being a closed topic was not just decided in 1950s – it was reaffirmed by Poland very clearly in the 1970s. The argument of Poland having been coerced in the 1950s doesn’t fly.
But the main thing is that this behavior has helped the right-wing PiS party bringing in additional votes each and every time. So this topic will reliably reappear each time when there are major elections in Poland. And it will never be officially submitted to Germany because then PiS would run the risk that Germany would work formally on settling the issue once and for all – thus denying the PiS this “election helper” for future elections.
It’s not really a Poland’s claim against Germany but government’s claim against the opposition. They were just waiting to pull the trigger in state media propaganda with “opposition against reparations” headlines. With support dropping badly in the polls, they felt they urgently needed the “pro-Germany traitors” story.
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Surprisingly shallow article from the Guardian.
Every time major elections in Poland are coming up, there will be talk about reparations from Germany. And interestingly, each and every time the Polish politicians have brought up these reparation demands, they have never been officially submitted to Germany. They just talk very loudly about them where their intended voters can hear.
The matter of reparations being a closed topic was not just decided in 1950s – it was reaffirmed by Poland very clearly in the 1970s. The argument of Poland having been coerced in the 1950s doesn’t fly.
But the main thing is that this behavior has helped the right-wing PiS party bringing in additional votes each and every time. So this topic will reliably reappear each time when there are major elections in Poland. And it will never be officially submitted to Germany because then PiS would run the risk that Germany would work formally on settling the issue once and for all – thus denying the PiS this “election helper” for future elections.
It’s not really a Poland’s claim against Germany but government’s claim against the opposition. They were just waiting to pull the trigger in state media propaganda with “opposition against reparations” headlines. With support dropping badly in the polls, they felt they urgently needed the “pro-Germany traitors” story.