Berlin has previously said all financial claims linked to World War II have been settled
THE Poland estimates that the losses he suffered during World War II due to Germany they amount to 6.2 trillion. zlotys (1.32 trillion US dollars, 1.3 trillion euros), the leader of the ruling nationalist party said today and said Warsaw would formally seek reparations.
Poland’s biggest trading partner and also a member of the European Union and NATO, Germany has said in the past that all economic claims linked to World War II have been settled.
The new assessment of the reparations owed is higher than the US$850 billion that a ruling party lawmaker had made in 2019. The ruling party Law and Justice (PiS) has repeatedly demanded reparations since taking power in 2015, but Poland has not formally sought reparations.
“The amount presented was adopted using the most limited, conservative method, it would be possible to increase it,” Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of PiS, said at a press conference.
The militant stance towards Germany, often used by PiS to mobilize its electoral audience, has strained relations with Berlin. It has intensified since Russia invaded the Ukraine amid criticism of Berlin’s reliance on Russian gas and its slowness to help Kyiv.
About six million Polesincluding three million Polish Jews, were killed during the war, and Warsaw was leveled after an uprising in 1944 in which an estimated 200,000 civilians lost their lives.
The German government and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 1953 the then communist government of Poland had given up all claims to war reparations under pressure from the Soviet Union, which wanted to release East Germany, also a Soviet satellite, from any debts. PiS says the deal is invalid because Poland could not negotiate a fair compensation.
THE Donald Tuskthe leader of the largest opposition party Citizens Platform, said today that Kaczynski’s announcement “had nothing to do with reparations”.
“It has to do with internal political campaigning to rebuild support for the ruling party,” he said.
PiS still leads in most opinion polls, but its gap with Citizens’ Platform has narrowed in recent months amid criticism over its handling of soaring inflation and the economic slowdown.
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