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Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

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Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#2
I would not read into it much more than international policy for internal propaganda. They know it's not gonna succeed.

Why do they come up with this right now? Their poll ratings are slipping, following Odra river ecological disaster and huge inflation - and these are only their latest screwups. Many social groups traditionally in favor of PiS are becoming mad at the government. They have their "iron electorate" that will vote them no matter what, but this does not give them majority.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#5
How does one decide which countries owe reparations? Poland could equally demand reparations from Russia [1], as could most of Eastern Europe, while South-Eastern Europe could demand reparations from Turkey. Yet one never sees headlines about those.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territories_of_Poland_annexed_...

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#7
The Polish government is being pulled in a few interesting directions. For instance, as of 20 Sep, 2021:

Poland must pay a daily penalty of €500,000 ($585,550) for ignoring a previous order from the European Union’s top court to cease operations at the Turow lignite mine, with its CEO slamming the fine as “bizarre”.

On Monday, the EU’s Court of Justice (CJEU) confirmed it was enforcing the financial penalty against Warsaw, stating that Poland must pay the European Commission the daily half-million euro fine until it sees compliance with the earlier order.

Judges from the Luxembourg-based court said that the fine is “necessary… to deter that member state from delaying bringing its conduct into line with that order.”

https://twitter.com/EUCourtPress/status/1439940814046744581?...

The Czech Republic took legal action against Poland in February over activities at the mine, which also sits close to the German border, claiming that it spoiled its citizens’ drinking water. After Warsaw failed to obey the court orders in May to “immediately cease lignite extraction activities at the mine”, Prague asked the court to fine Poland €5 million per day.

Poland is widely hated by its neighbors for the existence of this mine. The mine is also in a hilarious geographic location if you look it up on the map. It's BARELY within the country.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#8
post #4

Seems fairly likely the FSB is behind this. What better way to fracture unity for the two European states most involved in the Ukraine war?

This particular one? I doubt, but there are theories in major newspapers (Polityka, Gazeta Wyborcza, Newsweek) that Antoni Macierewicz (former defence minister, a major PiS politician) is a Russian agent or otherwise connected with Russia, as such connections pop up all around his circle of friends.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#9
post #3

No, there is a political party that has put this forward as part of its campaign preparations. There is no broad or publicly demonstrated support for reparations demands in Poland.

The reparations for Poland has been ongoing since the end of WW2, however since Poland went into the Iron Curtain, the reparations they did receive were given to the soviet union, who didn't provide them to Poland. And by now the memory of the 6 million dead Polish is distant or non-existent.

Re: Poland plans to seek $1.3T in reparations from Germany for WWII

#10
There is something interesting going on here from a geopolitical angle. EU is being sued for providing recovery fund because some senior German EU officials don’t like their right wing government.[1]

This is even though Poland is housing millions of Ukrainian nationals. A senior EU official has been quoted they won’t get this fund till till this government stays in power.

[1] https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/08/29/eu-council-sue...

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