{"id":606540,"date":"2025-12-02T03:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/606540\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T03:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T03:14:16","slug":"polish-german-tensions-over-wwii-reparations-mar-leaders-summit-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/606540\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish-German tensions over WWII reparations mar leaders\u2019 summit \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>But Tusk, under pressure from the opposition nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, took a harder line on the matter than he has in the past, criticizing Germany\u2019s logic for refusing to pay war reparations to Poland.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe in Poland all believe that Poland has not received compensation for the losses and crimes of World War II,\u201d Tusk said.<\/p>\n<p>After his reelection in 2023, Tusk had not highlighted the reparations demands of the previous PiS government, which called on Germany to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/poland-germany-pay-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pay \u20ac1.3 trillion<\/a> for its 1939-1945 occupation of Poland. Berlin has repeatedly said the matter is legally \u201cclosed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But on Monday, Tusk reopened the issue, criticizing the German argument that Poland waived its right to reparations in the 1950s when it was under the control of the Soviet Union. <\/p>\n<p>PiS politicians, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/poland-president-berlin-germany-visit-donald-tusk-friedrich-merz\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">including Poland\u2019s current president, Karol Nawrocki,<\/a> argue the waiver was made under Soviet pressure and can\u2019t be taken at face value. On Monday, Tusk echoed that line.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2248745479-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7585332\"  \/>Friedrich Merz said Germany would press ahead with plans to construct a memorial dedicated to Polish victims of Nazi Germany in Berlin. | Kay Nietfeld\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGermany is adhering to this formal diplomatic agreement from the 1950s,\u201d Tusk said. \u201cThose who know history know that in the 1950s, Poland had no say in the matter. And Poland\u2019s waiver of reparations is not seen as an act that reflects the opinion of the Polish people. The Polish people had no say.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But Tusk, under pressure from the opposition nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, took a harder line on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[473,5898,2000,299,1945,11070,1824,2348,51030,7337,3209,770,18241,48,332,657,49,2601,771,335],"class_list":{"0":"post-606540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-defense","9":"tag-donald-tusk","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-friedrich-merz","13":"tag-german-politics","14":"tag-germany","15":"tag-history","16":"tag-karol-nawrocki","17":"tag-olaf-scholz","18":"tag-payments","19":"tag-poland","20":"tag-polish-politics","21":"tag-rights","22":"tag-russia","23":"tag-ukraine","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","26":"tag-war","27":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115647798739202905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}