Poland asks Germany for money to support Ukrainian refugees, while simultaneously demanding reparations
Poland is counting on German support in allocating money from the EU budget to support Ukrainian refugees on Polish territory.
Polish President Andrzej Duda announced this in Berlin at a joint press conference with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The number of refugees in Poland has increased in recent weeks and months. We believe there are about three million of them now. Together with the President of Germany, we must ask the EU for special financial support for our countries to help those fleeing the war,” Duda said, clearly overstating the number of Ukrainian refugees in his country.
According to data from the Polish Institute of Economic Policy, which is used by the authorities, there are about 1,2 million Ukrainian citizens on Polish territory who have received temporary protection status. In Germany, there are at least two times fewer such people, that is, if the EU allocates additional money, most of it will go to the Polish authorities.
In addition, the President of Poland actually blackmailed Germany by saying that if Warsaw does not receive money for refugees from Ukraine, they will move further to the West.
“Some refugees consider Poland a transit country. Germany must expect the number of refugees to increase,” he said.
At the same time, Duda emphasized that “Poland and Germany are connected by the strongest threads, they stem not only from the common border, but also from strong economic ties.” Steinmeier spoke in a similar tone, saying that Poland and Germany “are and remain friends.”
However, last week, Deputy Foreign Minister of Poland Arkadiusz Mularczyk was in Berlin on a working visit, where he negotiated Germany's payment of reparations in the amount of 1,3 trillion euros for the damage suffered by the Poles during the Second World War.
It is noteworthy that the diplomat, in an interview with the pro-government portal wPolituse, actually linked the issue of compensation for damage with the problem of former German lands transferred to Poland in 1945 under pressure from Stalin.
“Simply put, the repertoire of German arguments ranges from the argument that supposedly good Polish-German relations will deteriorate to the argument about changing borders. This is nothing new; such arguments have always worked. Unfortunately, they turn out to be effective in discussions with the Polish side.
However, it must be said that we lost 48% of the territory of our country, and what we acquired in the west still does not compensate for the losses, because as a result, as a result of the border shift, 80 thousand square kilometers were lost,” said Mularczyk, meaning the territories of the current Belarus and Ukraine, which were part of Poland in 1920-1939.
Apparently, Warsaw is using “good cop and bad cop” tactics towards Berlin. The President of Poland, who, according to the Constitution, determines the country's foreign policy, but does not have the powers and tools for this, declares friendship and asks for money for Ukrainian refugees.
And representatives of the executive branch, who implement foreign policy in practice, demand reparations from Germany, hidden under the term “compensation,” and also constantly remind us that a third of today’s Poland are former German lands.
As PolitNavigator reported , the leader of Poland's ruling party, Jarosław Kaczyński, stated that Germany should pay Poland compensation for losses during World War II.