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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

#11
post #6

Remember that time Germany paid reparations after WWI? It experienced hyperinflation to combat it and elected a nationalist leader.

Remember when France paid even more in 1815 and 1871 and didn't went on a genocidal rampage on their neighbors?

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

#12
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?

It's not. They're having a row over EU funds being cut off due to the fact that PiS screwed up the Polish justice system. Now they're upset about it and Kaczynski is asking for war reparations. It's just populist rhetoric, nothing more.

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

#15
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.

The point of disinformation is not to out someone but to destroy trust in all information. So you actually can't decide is it a truth or not, is it Russia that is trying to saw discord or is he truly a Russian agent.

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

#16
post #11
post #6

Remember that time Germany paid reparations after WWI? It experienced hyperinflation to combat it and elected a nationalist leader.

Remember when France paid even more in 1815 and 1871 and didn't went on a genocidal rampage on their neighbors?

> The last payment of the indemnity was paid in early September 1873

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity

Not sure you're comparing apples with apples here.

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

#18
post #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_...

> How does one decide which countries owe reparations?

It's not decided, it's declared.

The tricky bit is enforcing it, which usually requires having just won a war with the other party, and getting it in the peace treaty they're forced to sign.

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

#20

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 W…

So it looks like this mine produces coal which I am assuming is used for power generation. Don't know if I can blame them for not shutting it down while the message coming from the rest of Europe is that everyone's going to be doing an IRL game of Frostpunk this winter.
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