Polish president to demand WWII reparations during Berlin visit

Polish President Karol Nawrocki, supported by the opposition conservative-right Law and Justice (PiS) party, is set to meet with Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.

PiS is demanding that Berlin pay reparations for Nazi Germany’s invasion and occupation of Poland during World War II.

Relations between Poland and Germany have oscillated between close cooperation and open conflict in recent years. Although the two countries have strong trade relations and increasing cooperation in defense, Nawrocki and PiS politicians criticize the EU’s interference in Poland’s internal affairs and express ongoing anger over the historical damage inflicted on Poland by Nazi Germany.

Knut Abraham, the German Foreign Ministry’s coordinator for Polish relations, said the relationship is extremely sensitive. “Even a half-sentence spoken incorrectly can lead to major turmoil,” he stated.

Nawrocki, a former boxer, in many ways represents the “Polish populism” that most troubles Merz and his allies. The Polish president was elected in June on a “Poland First” platform, which demands that the Merz government pay reparations.

No press conference will be held

At a World War II commemoration ceremony earlier this month, Nawrocki said, “Reparations cannot be an alternative to historical memory, but Poland, a key country on NATO’s eastern flank, needs justice and truth [and] clear relations with Germany.”

Nawrocki’s spokesman, Rafał Leśkiewicz, said the president “will definitely raise this issue” during his visit to Berlin.

The Polish president will meet with Merz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. As no press conference is planned, the likelihood of the disagreement becoming public is limited.

After coming to power, the Tusk government withdrew the previous PiS government’s demand for €1.3 trillion in reparations from Germany. Nawrocki continues to support this figure.

Nawrocki, “Trump’s man in Poland”

Despite the tensions, Nawrocki could be useful to Merz and other European leaders in one sense: he has the ear of US President Donald Trump, according to POLITICO.

Trump endorsed Nawrocki before this year’s Polish presidential election and welcomed him with great enthusiasm at the White House earlier this month.

After Russian drones entered Polish airspace last week, Trump called Nawrocki, not Tusk. When Trump held a phone call earlier this month with leaders of the “coalition of the willing” countries providing security guarantees to Ukraine, the White House again called Nawrocki, not Tusk.

This is despite Nawrocki’s position in Polish politics being somewhat ceremonial. Although the Polish president has the power to veto legislation and has used this authority to block Tusk’s agenda, it is Tusk and his ministers who manage foreign policy and defense matters.

Trump’s overt efforts to bypass Tusk have caused tension between the Polish government and the Polish president. “There cannot be two different foreign policies,” said Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Paweł Wroński earlier this month.

Given this dynamic, it seems unlikely that German and European leaders will take any steps that would weaken Tusk’s position.

The Tusk administration does not want to jeopardize the German market

While the Tusk government believes there is a moral justification for reparations, it argues they are not legally feasible and suggests that pursuing them would damage relations with Germany, Poland’s largest export market.

Instead, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski has proposed that the German government provide a “visible sign” acknowledging the damages Poland suffered during the war. Examples include a documentation center or a dialogue center that would recognize the suffering of Poles while also serving as a memorial.

In April, a temporary memorial was erected in Berlin using a 30-ton rock to commemorate the Polish victims of Nazi Germany. A permanent memorial is planned, but it first requires a resolution from the German Bundestag.

However, such gestures are unlikely to satisfy the reparation demands of PiS politicians, given that a large portion of the Polish electorate supports the party’s stance.

According to a poll by SW Research for the news portal Onet, 54% of respondents supported reparations, while 27% opposed the idea.