Zaklin Nastic, a Bundestag MP from the Left Party, made the remark in an interview with the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) news outlet, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Thursday.
Nastic said that the issue of reparations for World War II wasn’t settled by the 1990 Two Plus Four Treaty between West Germany and East Germany (GDR) and the four superpowers: the US, the Soviet Union, Britain and France.
“Neither Poland, nor Greece and other countries eligible for reparations were part of these talks,” she stressed.
Nastic added: “If settlements are being struck at the expense of third-party countries, then this is unacceptable from the point of view of international law.”
Germany’s stance ‘morally reprehensible’
The MP criticised the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who dismissed Polish claims for war reparations in a recent interview, saying that the topic “is settled conclusively under international law.”
Nastic, who was born in Poland’s northern port city of Gdynia, said: “I believe that the complete rejection by the federal government of any compensation claims, both from Poland and from Greece, is morally reprehensible.”
She added that contrary to the view represented by Scholz and his predecessor Angela Merkel, the issue of compensation for World War II “is not merely a legal issue.”
“This matter is also about treating our immediate neighbours with respect,” the Bundestag MP stressed.
Nastic’s comments come after Polish government officials said that Warsaw would send a formal diplomatic note to Berlin, demanding reparations for World War II, “in a matter of weeks.”
Poland estimates its WWII losses caused by Germany at EUR 1.3 trillion
On September 1, Poland published a report estimating the country’s World War II losses caused by German aggression at EUR 1.3 trillion.
The leader of Poland's ruling conservatives Law and Justice, Jarosław Kaczyński, said that a decision had been made to raise the issue of World War II reparations with Berlin.
Kaczyński added: “It’s about securing compensation, maybe through a long and arduous process, for everything that Germany, the German state, the German nation, did to Poland between 1939 and 1945.”
(pm)
Source: PAP, dw.com