I do not agree with opinions that ignore Donald Tusk’s words in Berlin that the issue of reparations is closed in a formal and legal sense. These are not “just words,” for words in such a place, time, and company carry much more weight.
It is true that the Polish Prime Minister in Berlin did not sign anything, so the legal status of our claims against Germany has not formally changed. The Sejm resolution calling on Berlin to pay compensation for war losses, destruction and killings is still in force; the document underlying this claim should still be the report of Arkadiusz Mularczyk’s team. But let’s turn the situation around: if Chancellor Scholz were to admit for at least half a sentence that the issue of reparations has not yet been finalized, we would (and rightly so) hold very firmly to this statement. I have no doubt that this apparently innocent interference by Tusk in Germany will take on a life of its own and provide an effective shield against Poles eager to have their grievances redressed.
It is true that Donald Tusk later stated in his statement that these errors had not been compensated. That’s right, but who cares if the case is over “from a legal and formal point of view”? This is not a good negotiating strategy, if there is any strategy beyond paying tribute to Berlin. Tusk also said that he guarantees good relations between our capitals, and – as was loudly said recently – the issue of reparations is a major point of contention. The efforts of Polish diplomats and historians who painstakingly prepared a document (the War Losses Report) that cannot be questioned have been lightly, too lightly, brushed aside. That is why the Germans do not even want to engage in substantive polemics; they end the discussion by saying that such a topic does not exist. Now we also hear it from the Polish Prime Minister.
I admit that the words of Donald Tusk from Berlin shocked me as much as anything else in politics lately. Equally painful was the thought that occurred to me when I realized how much effort, analyses, opinions, consultations and work of the ‘specialists’ Tusk needed to convince itself to continue the construction of the clearly profitable (on many levels) Central Communications Gate to make. and how easy it is for him to give up demanding money from Berlin. Poland in the heart? Serious?
READ ALSO MARZENA NYKIEL’S COMMENT: On behalf of whom is Tusk invalidating Poland’s efforts for reparations? Where does his pro-German living room butler mentality come from?
READ ALSO JAKUB MACIEJEWSKI’S COMMENTS: Germans are the best investment specialists. Every money spent on Tusk was repaid a thousandfold
Source: wPolityce