Warsaw - The liberal victor of the Polish elections, Donald
Tusk of the People's Platform (PO), considers German Chancellor
Angela Merkel as the 'best German politician from the Polish
perspective,' he said in an interview published in the Gazeta
Wyborcza on Monday.
Merkel was opening up an opportunity to improve German-Polish
relations, he said.
'Decisions and statements by German politicians who question the
right historic conclusions drawn from the Second World War won't be
accepted. I would like to discuss this with Chancellor Angela Merkel
- the best German politician from the Polish perspective. It would be
a sin not to use this opportunity,' Tusk told the paper.
He said Poland would only feel safe if 'Germany remembered its
history,' although three generations had passed since the war.
The time of 'gesture politics,' as it existed 'between Kohl and
Mazowiecki in Kreisau' in November 1989 was over, the PO leader said,
referring to former chancellor Helmut Kohl and former premier Tadeusz
Maqowiecki. Those two politicians embraced in Kreisau, in lower
Silesia, a town which symbolized German resistance against former
dictator Adolf Hitler.
'Now our interests are at stake and we have to defend them,' the
future head of government said, confirming the Polish rejection of
Russian-German plans to build a pipeline below the Baltic Sea.
The PO won 41.5 per cent of the vote in October 21 parliamentary
elections, with Tusk being the candidate for the prime ministerial
office.
The national-conservative Prime Minister Jaroslav Kaczynski of the
Law and Justice Party (PiS) is due to step down on Monday.
During Kaczynski's time in office German-Polish relations had
become strained.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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