German lawmaker compares Polish governing parties with far right at home

International Herald Tribune ^ | March 6, 2007

[lizol]

German lawmaker compares Polish governing parties with

The Associated Press

Published: March 6, 2007

BERLIN: The head of an organization representing Germans expelled from eastern Europe after World War II was quoted Tuesday as comparing Poland's governing parties with far-right German groups — a comparision swiftly rejected by fellow lawmakers in Berlin.

Erika Steinbach, who heads the Federation of Expellees and is also a lawmaker for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, has long been criticized in Poland. Mindful of a brutal Nazi occupation, many Poles view efforts to draw attention to the expelled Germans' plight with suspicion.

Those efforts, and attempts by a small group of Germans — opposed by Steinbach — to claim compensation for property lost when borders were moved westward after the war have weighed on relations between Berlin and Poland's conservative nationalist government.

"On the Polish side, there apparently is little interest at present in taking the tension out of relations with Germany," Steinbach was quoted as telling the Passauer Neue Presse daily.

"The parties that govern Poland are comparable with the German Republicans, DVU and NPD," she added, the paper reported — a reference to three fringe far-right parties. "We can't expect too much."

The CDU's general secretary, Ronald Pofalla, said that "this does not correspond with the German CDU's opinion." Markus Meckel, a lawmaker with the party's coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrats, urged Steinbach to apologize immediately to the Polish government.

After meeting in Berlin with his German counterpart, Polish Parliament President Marek Jurek said Steinbach's comment was "not an appropriate statement."

[dfwgator]

Not this bee-otch again.

[lizol]

Eastern European ping list

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FRmail me to be added or removed from this Eastern European ping list

[lizol]

What do you want? She's just doing her best to improve Polish-German relations. (sarc.)

[Red6]

The Germans are a confused crowd.

[wolf78]

Well, basically everything that needed to be said has been said (i.e. other MPs distanced themselves from Erika the Incorrigible's statements).

DVU and NDP are pure scum. Comparing them to the PiS is idiocy. However I would say that all in all the League of Polish families and "Die Republikaner" are in the same, well, league, policy-wise.

[Atlantic Bridge]

Steinbach... ...uh well.

Recently I read a interview with Bartoszewski and he asked the right questions. I.e. why it is nessecary that Steinbach is in the executive committee of the CDU? Or why it is nessecary that Steinbach is a member of the German Bundestag for the CDU?

If the CDU and its chairwoman Angela Merkel would be really interested into a good German-Polish relationsship they could solve this "annoyance" within half an hour. The thing is that they are doing lip-service instead of standing in for a stringent and clear policy. Merkel does not want to abdicate the votes of the far right in her party. Her political survival is far more important to her than the opinion of President Kaczynski. You see - Steinbach is just a woman of straw. She is needed for a political auto-erotic show to entertain the "conservative" part of the de facto social democratic CDU. Nothing but good old propaganda.

Somehow it is disgusting for a German like me that I have to explain the precipices of our ruling party and their complete lack of vision. This was not always so. The CDU was once leading in building up a stable German-French relationsship. They had deep interest in a strong Europe. Maybe this changed after the reunification when they absorbed many east Germans with their far more national point of view, their fear and their dumb prejudices. Who knows?

What are the future prospects? I doubt that there will be much movement under the current gouvernments in Germany and Poland. Concerning the greater relationship between our countries we probably have to wait for a political change (that might be destructive for internal reasons but helpful in the relations between our countries) on both sides.

Bartoszewski, who is 85 years old, said in his interview that he is sure that he will survive the current Polish administration and the reign of the Kaczynski family. I do not want to comment on that, but just that much: Probably he is able to celebrate the end of the current German administration too.

[Kozik]

Well, Wladyslaw Bartoszewski is Polish hero and his devotion to our country is unquestionable. And what you did for this country, Mr. Vox?

I am sure you love Poland very strong, but I don't think it gives you right to say such words about Mr. Bartoszewski.

[wolf78]

I'll translate:

Ain't your business. = Nothing at all whatsoever.

I'm not going to confess in public, especially before liberals of CP. = Far too embarrassing.

We, bartoszewski and me, are obviously different in times we live and this makes us incomparable. = He has been there and knows what he's talking about.

However, we visually differ much in our approach to Poland - I didn't mock my Fatherland like that clown Bartoszewski does, just to amuse THE BIG BOSS, Herr Donald Tusk. = I just repeat with adoration whatever the Kaczynskis (aka GOD) say.

Bartoszewski can be and is a hero only for communist German lovers of SLD, PO, UW only. You are one of them, so further discussion is pointless. = The party (PiS) is always right - and don't you dare question that.

Watch and listen to the Bolshevik TVN, especially your Gurus of "Szklo Kontaktowe" and leave me alone. = Otherwise I'll threaten to leave FR like a hundred times before, only to stay regardless.

[wolf78]

As I said thousand times. PiS is the best party ever in Poland because Germans hate it. As long as Germans spit on Kaczynskis and PiS, all goes in the right direction.

I'll take a break (but only a very short one) from the usual sarcasm now. Honest to God, those were almost exactly the same words my grandmother (who on one occasion was literally inches away from being grabbed by the Gestapo, because she and my great-grandmother still were socialists around 1940, an "offense" that could have meant concentration camp for her) used to describe the NSDAP, when I asked her once why people voted for Hitler: "Most people thought Hitler was strange and could land Germany in a lot of trouble, but as long as he manages to piss of and scare the French, he must be doing something right...". Pretty much speaks for itself.

And the result was that we almost were forced to pay huge war compensations to Germans according to claims of Steinbach and Prussian trust.

The usual idiocy. The "Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany" has been, is, and will be, as it says, final, as is the Oder-Neisse border. Your claim therefore is nonsense.

Ah, ja, Polen erwache.... never gets old, the metaphor, does it? Judging by your linguistics, you, my friend, would have made the most excellent Nazi ;).

Lech Kaczynski said: if they demand war compensations for the property that was left on the territories which returned to Poland, we will demand compensations for destroying Poland in years 1939-1945. Too bad the German republic is making no such demands.

Potato, a man who lives with his mother without marriage, etc.

Pretty harmless compared to the Polish press, but then again, the German government has a much thicker skin. But hey, it comes with the territory. I also don't think President Bush is easily offended by the Saskatchewan Morning Herald.

That only says that ALL IS OK and Poland is doing fine.

As it should be. Poland will continue to prosper, even more so after the Polish electorate got rid of the current socialist government. And Germany will continue to be one of the greatest nations on earth, a culture that brought the world - among numerous other things - the car, book printing, the jet engine, the program-controlled computer, and so forth....

[Atlantic Bridge]

As it should be. Poland will continue to prosper, even more so after the Polish electorate got rid of the current socialist government. And Germany will continue to be one of the greatest nations on earth, a culture that brought the world - among numerous other things - the car, book printing, the jet engine, the program-controlled computer, and so forth....

That is the point. There is nothing more to say.

[wolf78]

You called me a nazi...

You are wrong. Other than you, who literally called me a Nazi (still waiting for an apology), I merely remarked that, surprisingly (or not), you seem to speak Nazi fluently (Parlez vous Stuermer?).

You appear aroused by your personal phantasies of German cities being nuked (never mind that the Dresden bombings had almost the same effect). You pay lip service as to how much you like jews nowadays, but according to your very own words (a number of weeks ago) Germans have no right to live.

[Rummenigge]

are you still talking to this troll ?