Media in Germany suggest that Karol Nawrocki’s visit to Berlin and raising the issue of reparations carries the potential for conflict. “To say that President Karol Nawrocki will be attacked in Berlin is to say nothing. The local mainstream media and establishment are virtually charged with contempt and hostility, bordering on hatred,” assessed political scientist Dr. Michał Kuź.
President of the Republic of Poland (RP) Karol Nawrocki arrived in Berlin on Monday evening, where today he will meet with the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, as well as with the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. While still in Poland, he emphasized that an important element of the talks would be the issue of paying war reparations.
“The most important topic [of the meeting with Steinmeier] that will be discussed here will be the matter of compensation claims, reparations. Karol Nawrocki has been suggesting for some time that part of the debt Germany owes Poland for the years of World War II could be repaid by allocating funds to NATO’s eastern flank,” said Cezary Gmyz today on TV Republika.
This topic will also come up later during Karol Nawrocki’s meeting with the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz.
“I believe that reparations are important both for Poland and for our partners, for Germany, in order to bring this matter to a close,” summarized the President of Poland in an interview for Bild, stressing that contrary to the German government’s position, the issue of reparations is not legally closed.
Will Merz’s words weigh on the talks? Bild suggests that the reparations issue raised during the visit to Berlin “carries the potential for conflict.”
The topic of confrontation during Karol Nawrocki’s visit to Germany has been widely present in German media.
Deutsche Welle quotes Dr. Anja Hennig from Viadrina University, who suggests that the reparations issue is “in the interest of PiS” and that she “does not think it will disappear from the agenda, even if security policy is now at the center.”
Knut Abraham, coordinator for Polish-German cooperation, emphasized that from the German point of view, the reparations issue has been legally and financially closed for decades. He referred here to the “symbolic sphere,” and in this context mentioned a “memorial stone for Polish victims,” while also noting that Germany is engaged in supporting Poland’s security in the current tense geopolitical situation.
“The media are charged up,” said Gmyz on TV Republika. “The Germans point out that Karol Nawrocki is a much more difficult partner than Donald Tusk when it comes to bilateral relations and they notice a certain kind of tension. This is not a dominant tone, but let us recall that during the election campaign nearly all German media supported Karol Nawrocki’s opponent, Rafał Trzaskowski.”
It is worth recalling that Friedrich Merz openly said he had hoped for a different outcome in the Polish presidential election. Journalist Aleksandra Fedorska, specializing in German affairs, points out, however, that German media since early morning have been flooding the information space with the topic of reparations and the visit.
Dr. Michał Kuź states that to say that the President of Poland (PKN) will be attacked in Berlin is to say nothing. The local mainstream media and establishment are virtually charged with contempt and hostility, bordering on hatred, he wrote on social media.
It is telling that the press agenda does not include any press conference after Karol Nawrocki’s meetings with Steinmeier and Merz. The Polish President is scheduled to meet journalists only in Paris, where he will travel after his visit to Berlin.