Share :

Download PDF :

Politico (16 September 2025)

Nette Nöstlinger, Wojciech Kość and James Angelos

It’s no secret that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz prefers to work with that other Polish leader, centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

But on Tuesday he’ll be receiving Polish President Karol Nawrocki, a nationalist backed by the opposition populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which demands that Berlin pay reparations for Nazi Germany’s World War II invasion and occupation of Poland.

Relations between Poland and Germany have seesawed between close cooperation and open friction in recent years. While the two countries have strong trade relations and increasingly cooperate on defense, Nawrocki and PiS politicians have railed against the EU’s influence over Polish affairs and have stoked lingering resentments over the historical destruction that Nazi Germany wrought on Poland.

Click for more