And finally…don’t mention (the cost of) the war

In a development that has the potential to deepen a divide between the European Union’s largest eastern member and the bloc’s biggest economy, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said his country had been “massacred” by the Germany in the war.

Between the collapse of communism in 1989 and 2004 when Poland joined the EU, subsequent governments declared the issue of war reparations from Germany closed, based on a declaration of the 1953 communist administration in Warsaw and treaties from 1970 and 1990 with Germany.

However, Morawiecki told reporters on Tuesday in Warsaw: “The historic bills have not been settled, that’s obvious”.

Such a claim opens up the possibility of a stand-off between the country with a population of 38 million against its biggest economic partner.

Poland’s trade with Germany amounts to more than $100 billion a year — more than a quarter of imports and exports and more than the next five countries combined.

The comments echo recent statements by Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz, as well as ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski who last month linked the Nazi invasion to Poland’s moral right to aid from the EU.

The EU, though, is weighing potential sanctions against Poland for flouting the bloc’s standards on democracy and the rule of law, having opened an unprecedented probe into the Polish government’s push to strip the judiciary of its independence by giving politicians greater control over the courts.

According to Anna Materska-Sosnowska, a political scientist at Warsaw University, one reason that the government is reopening the question may be to demonstrate it isn’t intimidated by the EU’s criticism over democratic backsliding.

She said: “This is catering to domestic political demand and is meant to cover other issues and show that Poland’s isn’t scared of anyone, even Germany,” she said. “If this was about real negotiations, the political language would be different. The anti-German card has been in use quite often.”