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Polish MPs calculate potential war reparations from Germany

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 30.09.2017 16:00
A group of Polish lawmakers is calculating reparations that they say Germany still owes Poland for World War II.
Photo: e-gabi/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative CommonsPhoto: e-gabi/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons

Any MP can join the parliamentary group, which has been established by the country’s ruling conservatives, a lawmaker said on Saturday.

"Such a team is needed to carry out analyses and support the government in efforts that will be made in this area," Jacek Sasin, a prominent figure in the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, said on state broadcaster Polish Radio.

He added that Poland’s conservative government was determined to “take good care of the country’s interests” even though the plan to seek war reparations from Germany may “rub someone the wrong way.”

The parliamentary group, launched on Friday and led by PiS MP Arkadiusz Mularczyk, will determine how much it considers Germany owes Poland for wartime damage, officials have said.

The group aims to collect documents and reasearch, and is also “seeking to establish clarity as to the legal ways and options of pursuing such claims," Mularczyk told Poland’s PAP news agency.

The opposition, meanwhile, is critical of the parliamentary group and of the plan to seek war reparations from Germany.

Rafał Grupiński, a senior politician with the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, which was ousted from power in 2015 parliamentary elections, said: "Poland’s national interest today is to maintain the best possible relations with Germany, our main ally in the European Union.”

A recent analysis by parliamentary experts concluded that the Polish government is entitled to demand that Germany pay reparations for the massive damage it inflicted on Poland in World War II.

The leader of Poland's ruling conservatives, Jarosław Kaczyński, has accused Germany of trying to “wriggle out” of paying Warsaw reparations.

Prime Minister Beata Szydło said earlier this month that Poland deserves reparations from Germany for the huge losses it caused in World War II, but indicated her government had not yet made a final decision on pressing claims.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel has reportedly rejected claims voiced in Poland that Berlin should pay reparations.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP

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