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Germany under pressure - Poland wants to increase reparation demands on Germany every year

Updated: Aug 4, 2023

The Polish government wants to increase its reparation demands on Germany every year and put international pressure on Germany. Since Germany is becoming dependent on Poland for gas, this is not an empty threat.

After the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up, Germany has become largely dependent on Poland for gas supplies because Poland has a liquefied natural gas terminal and a new pipeline from Norway. In addition, Poland also has it in its hands whether gas could flow to Germany through the Yamal pipeline.

Germany is also now dependent on Poland for oil, because now that Germany has placed Russian pipeline oil under sanctions, Germany does not have enough port capacity to import enough oil to be processed at the East German refinery that used to supply East Germany.

Against this background, Poland's reparation demands on Germany take on a new explosive quality, for Poland seems determined to collect them and is threatening international pressure.

It should go without saying that this also means using its own means of pressure against Germany. In addition, Poland has now announced that it will "index" the receivables, i.e. compensate for inflation, and thus increase them every year. About it the Russian news agency TASS has reported October 29, 2022

Poland will index the amount of reparations from Germany

Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a Polish deputy from the ruling Law and Justice party, said that sooner or later, under pressure from the Polish side, Germany would have to start negotiations and make a decision on payments.

The amount of reparations Poland expects from Germany for the damages the republic suffered during World War II will be indexed. Arkadiusz Mularczyk, a lawmaker from the republic's ruling Law and Justice Party who heads the group of experts that prepared the report on the country's losses from Nazi actions, told the Polish Press Agency on Wednesday.

"The report we prepared refers to the losses until the end of December 2021, which is 6,220 billion zlotys. However, at the end of this year, this amount will be much higher, as it is subject to indexation. It will amount to over seven trillion zloty.

Just as prices in stores are rising, the amount of our receivables from Germany is also subject to indexation," Mularczyk said.

According to him, under pressure from the Polish side, sooner or later Germany will have to start negotiations and make a decision on payments.

"If they don't accept it, they will have problems," the MP warned, explaining that Poland "will be reminded of German war crimes and German debts on all international platforms for months and years."

According to Mularczyk, "it could take three to five years for Germany to set up a fund to pay citizens. I believe that every Polish citizen should receive a certain amount," he stressed.

"Every Polish family has suffered human and material losses, has been displaced and has lost their property," the MP added. "Part of the money from the special fund should go to the development of the education, economic and health care systems in Poland. This should be a multi-year program that runs for 30 to 50 years," he concluded.

On Sept. 1, the Polish government presented a three-volume report prepared by experts from the republic on the losses suffered by Poland as a result of Nazi Germany's attack and German occupation from 1939 to 1945.

The final figure was 6,220,609,000,000 zlotys (about $1.3 to $1.5 trillion).

On October 3, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau signed a note demanding compensation from the FRG. Berlin said it had received the document and was examining it.

The German government has repeatedly indicated that it sees no reason for any payments, since Poland officially renounced reparations in 1953.

Warsaw maintains that the 1953 agreement was signed under pressure from the USSR and concerned only the defunct German Democratic Republic and the Polish People's Republic, which Polish analysts believe was not a sovereign state.

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