{"id":230549,"date":"2025-09-16T05:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230549\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T05:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T05:12:14","slug":"polands-president-set-to-demand-war-reparations-in-tense-berlin-visit-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/230549\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland\u2019s president set to demand war reparations in tense Berlin visit \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Memory politics<\/p>\n<p>After Tusk\u2019s government came to power, it dropped the demands of the previous PiS government that Germany pay\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/poland-germany-pay-up\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u20ac1.3 trillion in reparations<\/a> \u2014\u00a0a figure Nawrocki continues to back.<\/p>\n<p>The Tusk government, while believing there is a moral case for reparations, maintains they are legally a non-starter and argues that pursuing them undermines Poland\u2019s ties with Germany, its largest export market.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Polish Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski has suggested that the German government\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/poland-tempers-reparation-demand-from-germany\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">give a \u201cvisible sign\u201d<\/a>\u00a0that Germany acknowledges the damage Poland suffered during the war, such as \u201ca documentation center, a center for dialogue that recognizes the suffering of the Poles and is also a memorial.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In April, a temporary memorial involving a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.berlin.de\/en\/news\/9608659-5559700-boulder-commemorates-victims-of-german-o.en.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">30-ton boulder<\/a>\u00a0was erected in Berlin to commemorate the Polish victims of Nazi Germany. There are plans to erect a permanent memorial, though the German Bundestag must first pass a resolution.<\/p>\n<p>But such gestures are unlikely to satisfy demands by PiS politicians for reparations, given how many Polish voters back the party\u2019s stance. A survey by SW Research for news portal Onet found that 54 percent of respondents backed reparations while some 27 percent opposed the idea.<\/p>\n<p>Given that fact, Nawrocki is unlikely to back down from the demand, despite the fact that it may raise tensions between NATO allies at a time of war, critics say.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of course might want to use this issue to make a name for oneself in domestic politics. Fair enough, that happens everywhere,\u201d\u00a0said Rolf Nikel of the German Council on Foreign Relations and Germany\u2019s former ambassador to Poland.\u00a0\u201cBut the point is that we currently have a situation of war on our external borders, and that\u2019s why we must do everything we can to ensure that Germany, Poland and the other Europeans stand together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0\u201cAnything that stands in the way of that only plays into Mr. Putin\u2019s hands,\u201d Nikel added. \u201cWhen Mr. Nawrocki comes, he has to decide which tune he wants to play.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Memory politics After Tusk\u2019s government came to power, it dropped the demands of the previous PiS government that&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":230550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[25819,114,262,25820,90,264,3350,124336,25821,117,124337,50,123,124338,124339,124340,125,4995,130,273,274,131,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-230549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-borders","9":"tag-cooperation","10":"tag-defense","11":"tag-donald-tusk","12":"tag-elections","13":"tag-exports","14":"tag-foreign-policy","15":"tag-frank-walter-steinmeier","16":"tag-friedrich-merz","17":"tag-germany","18":"tag-karol-nawrocki","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-poland","21":"tag-polish-politics","22":"tag-populism","23":"tag-radoslaw-sikorski","24":"tag-rights","25":"tag-security","26":"tag-trade","27":"tag-ukraine","28":"tag-vladimir-putin","29":"tag-war","30":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115212264602617746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}