Property restitution claims in Poland

[Bonobo]

DEBATE: Property Restitution: Should Poland Pay?
Harry Templeton, Jonathan Czapski
The Krakow Post
Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The issue of compensation for those who lost property during the war and its aftermath remains a Pandora?s Box for Poland. Some 89,000 ownership claims are unresolved and it has been suggested that Poland would need in the region of 40 billion dollars to reimburse claimants at today's market prices. Thousands of properties were seized by the Nazis and Communists, including city mansions, factories and country estates. Numerous bills have been drafted and redrafted over the last 18 years. Most have been thrown out as unworkable. This summer, a U.S. Congress committee, acting on behalf of American Jews of Polish background, passed a resolution appealing for Poland to act. The committee suggested that 20% of current property values should be provided for those who are due
compensation. Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that a ?
transparent? bill will be drawn up this September.

AGAINST:

63 years ago, Poland was supposedly on the winning side in a World War. Yet after having fought doggedly against the Nazis for six years, she suddenly found herself being divided up by her allies.
Churchill, just four weeks after signing the infamous Yalta
Agreement of ?45, and realising that perhaps he had exaggerated in kowtowing to Stalin?s every last wish, wrote to the ailing President Roosevelt: "If we do not get things right now," he stressed, "it will soon be seen by the world that you and I, by putting our signatures to the Crimea settlement, have underwritten a fraudulent prospectus."

But things weren?t put right. And two years later, Churchill was
making his famous "Iron Curtain" speech. Stalin prevented Poland
from receiving post-war American funds to help rebuild the ruined
country. And when Gierek became Prime Minister in 1970 (one more
Soviet puppet whilst the legitimate Polish government remained in
exile in London, pestered by Soviet spies), he borrowed colossal
sums of money from the West to help fund flawed industrial projects, employing thousands of workers in factories that ultimately made a titanic loss. When Poland finally became independent again in 1990, she was immediately obliged to cough up billions of zloty to pay for ill-conceived communist schemes.

Poland is now just about pulling herself out of the Soviet swamp,
although unsurprisingly, the average wage remains pitiful compared
to both those of former wartime allies (the British, the French) and
adversaries (for example Austria, which miraculously evaded Soviet
domination). Tens of thousands of Polish citizens have had to flee
their country just to find a job. And now, Poland is being told that
she must pay out more billions, this time for crimes that were
committed not by an independent Polish state, but by the invading
regimes of Hitler and Stalin.

In a nutshell, yes, there should be compensation for those who lost
property due to two foreign dictators. But why should Poles have to
pay?

To this day, Polish survivors of Auschwitz, both Catholic and
Jewish, are paid a small annual dispensation by the German
government (it's often forgotten that Auschwitz was originally set
up by the Nazis as a holding camp for the Polish intelligentsia) .
Logically, Russia and Germany should pay for the damage that was
caused to Polish private property. Whole cities were destroyed.
Thousands of manor houses were either burnt or allowed to fall into
ruin. Land was confiscated, businesses were nationalised. The
eastern provinces were simply lopped off.

Realistically, Germany and Russia won't pay. But what about the EU?
Surely it was set up ? at least in part - to champion noble causes,
not to pay French farmers to sit around drinking ratafia. Reflecting
on the desertion of Poland in '45, the distinguished British scribe
and war hero Patrick Leigh Fermor concluded that the West "had
failed to see justice done." Surely, an EU project to reimburse the
dispossessed would be a fine way, if not to right the wrongs, then
at least to provide some measure of closure to the victims of the
Nazi-Soviet tornado.

FOR:

Quite simply, Poland has to pay. In fact, it's amazing that Poland
was even allowed to join the European Union given that it had failed to meet all of the necessary pre-requisites. The restitution of
possessions confiscated by the Nazis or communists was a condition of Polish entry according to resolutions published by the European Commission in July 1997.

All EU member states from the "New Europe" have already carried out the necessary reforms, barring Poland and Lithuania. The Czechs pushed through measures almost immediately after the Iron Curtain fell.

The fact that the issue has been brought back to the table by Jewish groups lobbying through the U.S. Congress does not help the Polish cause. Rather, it creates the impression that Poles are biased against their former Jewish citizens (20 percent of the claims are from Jewish families).

"Consecutive Polish cabinets told us not to rush them," a U.S.
Congressman on the committee told Gazeta Wyborcza. "And so we've been waiting for almost twenty years. We took a lot of pressure from our voters to remind the Polish government about this issue. And let me assure you that this resolution could have been much firmer. No one is expecting you to pay 100 or even 50 percent of the property value. If you had done it ten years ago, the cost would have been much lower."

Countless properties and businesses in Poland were taken over by the state after the Second World War. When the Iron Curtain fell, there could have been a fair settlement. But in fact, the newly democratic Polish state chose to sell countless properties. Of course, the new owners of these estates or businesses cannot simply be turfed out now. But some kind of compensation has to be paid to the genuine, pre-war owners. Many of these survivors, who endured unspeakable horrors during the war, are still alive today, now well into their eighties or nineties. Poland has to act swiftly in order to see justice done.

It is true that some properties have actually been successfully
reclaimed as a result of highly protracted individual legal cases.
But so far, there has been no consistency. Some families won back
property only to lose it again in the appeals courts. Others found a
legal stumbling block in the fact that they had lost their full
Polish citizenship, for the simple reason that they had had to
escape from the Nazis or Soviets.

As far as the EU goes, Poland has proved one of the most quarrelsome member states thus far, getting into scrapes over issues such as same sex partnerships, abortion and other sensitive subjects. However, Poland is a sworn member of the union, and her MEPs must learn to live with the policies that their country has agreed to uphold by joining the EU. Besides the above mentioned human rights, this also applies to the reimbursement of those who lost property in the war and its aftermath. At long last, this issue must be brought to a head.

[Bonobo]

Oct 14, 2008 20:38:18 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

DEBATE: Property Restitution: Should Poland Pay?

Court rejects Germans' property restitution claims
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 9, 2008

BERLIN: A European court on Thursday threw out a restitution claim
by Germans expelled at the end of World War II from what is now
Poland — a decision welcomed by the leaders of both countries.

The Prussian Claims Society, which represents a small group of
expelled Germans, filed its case seeking restitution for lost
property to the European Court of Human Rights in 2006.

It accused Poland of violating the rights of those driven from their
prewar homes as borders were redrawn in 1945.

The Strasbourg-based court said it had no jurisdiction to rule on
the issue because the events happened before Poland or Germany
signed the European Convention on Human Rights, which was drawn up
after World War II.

That means Poland has no duty "to enact laws providing for
rehabilitation, restitution of confiscated property or compensation
for property lost by the individual applicants."

Although the government in Berlin has long made clear that it
rejected restitution claims by Germans, threats of such claims have
caused anger in neighboring Poland and have weighed on relations.

Nazi Germany invaded Poland at the start of the war in 1939 and
subjected it to a brutal occupation. Six million Poles died, half of
them Jewish.

While the Prussian Claims Society acknowledged that Nazi Germany
inflicted massive suffering on Poland, it argued that it also was
unfair to punish individual Germans for Hitler's crimes in the
postwar expulsions.

Millions of Germans were driven from Poland, Czechoslovakia and
other countries.

Thursday's ruling came hours before a meeting in Berlin between
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Polish Prime Minister Donald
Tusk.

Tusk welcomed "this good solution for Poland and for Germany."

"This problem has found a definitive end," Tusk told reporters.

Merkel said her government's position that the Prussian Claims
Society's case was "not justified" had been vindicated.

************ ********* ********* ********* *********

Germany welcomes court ruling against refugees
DPA
2008-10-09

Berlin - The European Court of Human Rights rejected Thursday a land claim by ethnic Germans who lost homes in Poland during the Second World War, and Germany's Foreign Ministry praised the ruling. The private claim by a company representing 23 Germans has caused friction between the two countries.

Berlin said all along the claim had no validity, but also insisted it could not forbid the lawsuit.

In the ruling in Strasbourg, judges said modern Poland bore no human-rights responsibility for the expulsion of ethnic Germans by Soviet forces after October 19, 1944 because it had no governmental control of the land.

At the time, the territory had still been legally part of Germany and the court refused to hear full argument of the case, a court spokesman said in the French city.

The claimants set up a company, Preussische Treuhand, to pursue their demand for the return of real estate.

Polish politicians have accused the radical refugee group of trying to reverse the outcome of the war, in which defeated Germany lost all its territory east of the Oder-Neisse Line.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier welcomed the ruling, saying it confirmed Berlin's own position that there were no outstanding property issues from the Second World War between the two nations.

[Bonobo]

Polish FM slams US calls for Jewish property restitution
17.03.2011 11:45

Poland’s head of diplomacy, Radoslaw Sikorski has rebuffed calls from the United States to pay out restitution for citizens that lost property due to the Nazi and Communist regimes.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is to present a document signed in the 1960s by Poland and the United States which shows that Washington effectively gave up its right to represent its citizens in such restitution cases.

Talking to Polish Radio on Thursday morning, Radoslaw Sikorski said that “the United States gave up the right to represent its citizens in such cases and took the burden upon itself to pay out restitution money worth millions which Poland had already paid to the United States.”

The comments come after Stuart Eizenstat, a special advisor to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, bewailed Poland’s decision to stall additional compensation for citizens that lost property as a result of the Nazi and Communist regimes.

“Polish officials have stated on several occasions that property restitution and compensation would be addressed during the tenure of the current government,” Eizenstat told Polish Radio, Wednesday evening.

‘US could have helped earlier’

However, American pressure on Poland to pay out restitution claims has not pleased Radoslaw Sikorski, who told Polish Radio Thursday morning that “if the United States would have wanted to help Polish Jews, a good moment for that would have been 1943-44, when the majority of them were still alive, and Poland was pleading for help through the voice of Jan Karski.”

“Such an intervention is now too late,” Sikorski concluded.

During his mission in 1942, Karski provided evidence of German extermination policy against the Jews to the London based Polish government-in-exile, as well as to top British and US politicians and the press.


US keen to find compromise?

“Having been involved in this issue for some 15 years, previous prime ministers and presidents, going back to President Kwasniewski, have likewise committed themselves to resolving this issue,” Eizenstat told Polish Radio.

Earlier, during a press conference on the issue, he said that “the United States is deeply disenchanted by the Polish government’s decision to stall [the restitution] plans.”

“We have a very close deep bilateral relationship and we will hopefully use those close ties to try to diplomatically deal with this,” Eizenstat told Polish Radio last night.

Stuart Eizenstat, a former US ambassador to the European Union, noted that the majority of EU states which had faced similar problems had already enacted workable legislation, either in the form of restitution or compensation.

No money for restitution payouts

The matter relates to contested property that belonged to Polish citizens of all religious denominations. Approximately 89,000 cases are still outstanding, ranging from manorial estates of the Polish nobility to houses that belonged to Polish Jews.

Large scale restitution began in 1989, with the fall of communism. Yet while thousands of properties were returned to their pre-war owners, countless cases stalled.

Prime Minister Tusk pledged to push a bill through in 2008, but last week, he expressed that the matter was being stalled as “Poland could not afford to do so at present”, owing to “the global financial crisis.”

Yesterday, Eizenstat said that the US had taken on board Tusk’s remarks that the government “will reconsider the decision, when the economy rights itself.”

Earlier this week, Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said that the refusal to return property to owners was “immoral”.

Today, many of the claimants are scattered across the globe. They include veterans who fought for Poland during World War II, as well as Holocaust survivors.

=======================================================







Foreign Ministry publishes key restitution document
18.03.2011 10:29

After a week of furore in the media over mass restitution claims regarding property lost under the Nazis and Soviets, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has published a document from the 1960s that appears to confirm that Poland made vast pay-outs to US citizens as a means of compensation for lost estates.

In the document published on Thursday on the website of the Foreign Ministry, it appears that the US government relinquished further claims on Poland in exchange for a sum of 40 million US dollars (which amounts to the equivalent of 300 US million dollars today).

According to Sikorski, Poland paid 2 million US dollars per annum, beginning in January 1961. The minister holds that the payments continued for twenty years, fulfilling the entire quota.

The publication comes hot on the heels of criticisms from Stuart Eizenstat, an advisor to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, that Poland was not honouring its pledge to compensate the dispossessed.

Similar admonishments were made by Ronald S. Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, who said that he was “greatly disturbed” by Poland’s stance.

The matter relates to property lost by pre-war Polish citizens of all ethnic backgrounds during the Nazi occupation and its Communist aftermath.

Last week, Prime Minister Tusk announced that he was stalling a long debated bill on restitution, owing to “the global financial crisis.”

The bill would have effectively dealt with approximately 89,000 outstanding property claims, including families currently living in Poland, as well as emigres scattered across the globe, the latter most typically as a result of the communist takeover of Poland after the Second World War.

However, in a rebuttal of Mr Eizenstat’s remarks, Minister Sikorski has stated that as far as emigres to the US are concerned, Poland has not shied away from the issue.

When the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, thousands of families successfully regained property. However, the process was far from uniform, leaving many families both in Poland and beyond embittered by the process.

The question is highly complex, as Poland’s borders shifted west in 1945, and damage to property was endemic. In the capital alone, approximately 90 percent of the city was destroyed.

In the countryside, of the 20,000 or so manor houses that dotted the landscape prior to World War II, only a handful are currently inhabited by the heirs of the pre-war owners. The majority of such residences were allowed to fall into ruin during the communist era.

[Bonobo]

Poland’s Chief Rabbi rails against restitution backdown
15.03.2011 09:34
Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich has spoken in plain terms about the government’s decision to postpone compensation to families that had property seized by the Nazis and Communists.

The announcement follows a similar message carried across by the World Jewish Congress, whose president, Ronald S. Lauder, voiced concern over Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s remarks that “Poland cannot presently manage” to compensate any more citizens who lost property under the Nazis and Soviets.

“There is no difference, whether the owners of the property were Jewish or Christian,” the rabbi expressed.

“The Bible says ‘do not steal’.”

His remarks follow on from Poland’s declaration on Friday that it was postponing the bill on compensation, owing to “the global financial crisis”.

Although a great deal of property was successfully reclaimed following the collapse of communism in 1989, the process was far from uniform.

In many cases, property was sold to a third party, or had entered a state beyond realistic redemption. Other examples are still directly owned by the state.

Groups such as the World Jewish Congress and the Polish Landowners Association (PTZ) have campaigned for two decades for a breakthrough on the matter.

In 2008, Prime Minister Tusk verified that his government was drawing up a bill, following proposals that 20 percent of the current value of the property would be reimbursed. About 89,000 claims are still outstanding, however.

Opponents of the bill claimed that Poland should not have to pay for the crimes of the Nazis and Communists. (Estimates in 2008 amounted to 48 billion US dollars).

However, those in favour note that the majority of Central and Eastern European countries have already introduced effective laws on compensation.

Rabbi Schudrich, who is generally known for his conciliatory stance, was unambiguous in his remarks this week.

“The manner in which the state gives back the property; what percentage [of the value], that is not my jurisdiction, but the refusal to return it to the owners is immoral,” he said.

“I hope that the government reconsiders the question once again.”



=====================================================

World Jewish Congress criticises restitution backdown
14.03.2011 16:52
Ronald S. Lauder, the head of the World Jewish Congress, has spoken out in reaction to Prime Minister Tusk’s declaration that “Poland cannot presently manage” to compensate any more citizens who lost property under the Nazis and Soviets.

“We are greatly disturbed by this turn of events as Polish officials have been publicly stating for many years – indeed too many years – that the property restitution and compensation issue would be addressed and legislation introduced in Parliament,” Lauder exclaims in a statement issued by the World Jewish Congress on Sunday.

The question relates to about 89,000 property claims, affecting numerous families. A large proportion of the claimants are Polish nobles and wealthy Polish Jewish families that were compelled to live abroad as a result of Nazi and Communist rule.

Although thousands of properties were successfully reclaimed after 1989, it was a far from uniform process.

“By its announcement this week,” Lauder continues in the statement, “Poland is telling many elderly pre-war landowners, including Holocaust survivors, that they have no foreseeable hope of even a small measure of justice for the assets that were seized from them.”

In 2008, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared that Poland was not shirking the issue, and that a new bill was being drawn up.

The move came following suggestions that 20 percent of the current value of each property would be sufficient as a measure of compensation. Nevertheless, in 2008, that sum amounted to 48 billion US dollars.

Opponents of compensation claim that Poland should not be made to pay for the crimes of Hitler’s invading forces, likewise those of the Moscow-backed communist regime that followed. Until 1989, a government-in-exile continued to meet fortnightly in London, claiming to be the legitimate heirs to the pre-war legacy.

However, Lauder pointed out that “most central and eastern European countries have adopted some type of law to provide for the restitution of or compensation for confiscated property.”

“Poland stands out for its failure to do so.”

[valpomike]

Poland can never make the world happy, more so the USA with this president we have. Would Poland be getting back the many things taken durning the wars, from them?

Mike

[Bonobo]

The World Jewish Congress has failed to back its general counsel Menachem Rosensaft after he called for the international Jewish community to boycott Poland until it adopts a law on the restitution of Jewish property.

WJC secretary general, Michael Schneider, said in a statement Thursday that, “Although Mr. Rosensaft is the general counsel of the World Jewish Congress his statements on the issue were made in a personal capacity and not on behalf of the WJC. At no point has the WJC proposed a boycott of Poland, nor have we considered or discussed any such measures.”

The statement, however, recalls what WJC President Ronald S. Lauder has already said on the restitution problem.

"This issue has been under discussion in Poland for almost two decades, through many economic periods, including the present one when Poland is experiencing some of the strongest economic growth in the European Union.

“It is unacceptable that Poland cannot find some way to meet its responsibility to former landowners. Most central and eastern European countries have adopted some type of law to provide for the restitution of or compensation for confiscated property. Poland stands out for its failure to do so.”

[Bonobo]

Four jailed in wake of restitution scandal
02.02.2017 10:32
A court in Wrocław has jailed four people in relation to an ongoing scandal linked with the restitution of property in the Polish capital.
A former official at the Warsaw city hall, Jakub R. (name withheld under Polish privacy laws), his two parents, as well his lawyer, were jailed for three months on charges of corruption and fraud.

Investigations are ongoing.
The jail terms are the latest chapter in a scandal over the restitution of real estate in the Polish capital that has already seen the dismissal of several officials at Warsaw City Hall, and calls for mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz to resign.

Officials fired
Amid media allegations of a massive web of malpractice involving Warsaw officials, Gronkiewicz-Waltz last year announced that City Hall was firing three staff over the restitution of a prime plot of land on Chmielna street in the centre of the capital.

Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Warsaw mayor since 2006 and a leading light in the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, said that the decision to transfer the plot was “hastily taken” and that the three officials involved did not consider “all of the circumstances of the case”.

The origins of the scandal date back to the seizure of property under the October 1945 Bierut Decree, named after former Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut, which legalised the confiscation of plots of private land in the capital.

Thousands of private buildings were taken from their owners. Since the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 it has been possible to submit claims for the return of such confiscated property.

[Bonobo]

Feb 5, 2017 15:50:25 GMT 1 Bonobo said:

Four jailed in wake of restitution scandal
02.02.2017 10:32
A court in Wrocław has jailed four people in relation to an ongoing scandal linked with the restitution of property in the Polish capital.
A former official at the Warsaw city hall, Jakub R. (name withheld under Polish privacy laws), his two parents, as well his lawyer, were jailed for three months on charges of corruption and fraud.

Investigations are ongoing.
The jail terms are the latest chapter in a scandal over the restitution of real estate in the Polish capital that has already seen the dismissal of several officials at Warsaw City Hall, and calls for mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz to resign.

Officials fired
Amid media allegations of a massive web of malpractice involving Warsaw officials, Gronkiewicz-Waltz last year announced that City Hall was firing three staff over the restitution of a prime plot of land on Chmielna street in the centre of the capital.

Gronkiewicz-Waltz, Warsaw mayor since 2006 and a leading light in the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, said that the decision to transfer the plot was “hastily taken” and that the three officials involved did not consider “all of the circumstances of the case”.

The origins of the scandal date back to the seizure of property under the October 1945 Bierut Decree, named after former Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut, which legalised the confiscation of plots of private land in the capital.

Thousands of private buildings were taken from their owners. Since the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 it has been possible to submit claims for the return of such confiscated property.

An article describing the doubtful cases in property restitution in Warsaw

www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/dec/18/stole-city-soul-warsaw-reprivatisation-chaos




Here is an interesting discussion about it:

McChazza
This is a very one-sided, populist article which could almost have been penned by Law & Justice's propaganda machine.

If there are dodgy deals taking place to profit from reprivatisation (which there no doubt are), then by all means close the legal loopholes to prevent this, and prosecute those who flaunt the law. But the article paints a clear impression that all reprivatisation is bad, and all pre-war owners are money-grabbing scammers, which is patently untrue.

It is flagrantly populist and insulting to deny the descendants of legitimate pre-War property owners their right to reclaim what was theirs. Is the Guardian advocating war or mass nationalisation as legitimate means to transfer private property rights?

City authorities in Poland, as in most post-Communist countries, have a hard time making ends meet and financing redevelopment of city infrastructures decaying after 50 years of Communist neglect. The old buildings shown in the article are often representative of the state of city-owned buildings - run down, with crumbling facades, leaking roofs and old pipework. The municipal authorities do not plough money into repairing these buildings, as they have no funds, or financial incentive, to do so.

It is chiefly through private investment that Warsaw and other Polish city centres are being rebuilt and rejuvenated, which is critical to attracting investors and creating work. A striking contrast to Warsaw's rebirth after 1989 is Budapest, which started off at roughly the same level of dilapidation in 1989 and hasn't moved far from that spot (apologies to Hungarian readers and fans of Budapest - the city is naturally beautiful, but its centre is, objectively, very run down compared to Warsaw or Prague).

Many social tenants, already paying below-market rent, do not pay their rent on time or at all, safe in the knowledge that while the building belongs to the city, inefficient bureaucracy and laws protecting tenants make it highly improbable they will be evicted. When a pre-war owner reclaims their property, they often inherit these problematic tenants who should be the city's problem, as the city put them there. Yet eviction for non-payment can often take years and it is the pre-war owner who bears the financial burden in the interim.

Warsaw's mayor no doubt should bear the responsibility for the actions of her city hall employees. However, she has also presided over a complete transformation of the city over the past decade, which her critics seem to conveniently forget. Law and Justice (with the help, it appears, of the author) are cynically exploiting the reprivatisation issue as a flashpoint for a witch hunt to get the mayor kicked out and get their hands on Warsaw. The last time this happened, when Lech Kaczyński was mayor, investment came to a complete standstill.


marutimon McChazza
6d ago

19 20

No, it isn't. Its in line with the facts:
a) Most of Warsaw was rubble post-war. It was rebuilt by normal Poles. So question is - why is the state / town returning fully rebuilt buildings, instead of compensating them for the rubble?
b) This was a massive scam. And no one is against returning / compensating real owners, but this was a massive scam. I myself live in one such building, where the new 'owner' 'purchased' rights from 110 or 120 year old people! And there were many methods of basically stealing land.
c) This should have been dealt with via national law that regulated this in a fair just manner, but it never happened.
d) Even after being returned the tenants should have been protected from being misused, but they weren't. Everyone needs to accept that history is fact and needs to adjust to this.
e) The attack you made on social tenants is disgusting. The vast majority of social tenants pay their rent on time.

PiS is using this politically, but Lech Kaczynski from that party also presided over all this theft.


This was a massive scam


No, many cases were massive scams, while many others were legitimate redressing of pre-war claims. And not all of Warsaw was rubble. I also live in a building from 1905, which was not destroyed in the war, which was reclaimed by the pre-war owners, and which is now being fought over in the courts. The scamming in these cases is on the part of tenants' action groups, not the landlords. Let's not be one-sided here, and appreciate there is dishonesty both ways.

This should have been dealt with via national law that regulated this in a fair just manner, but it never happened


Fair point - but not a basis for a witch-hunt against the current mayor of Warsaw, who has nothing to do with setting laws.

Even after being returned the tenants should have been protected from being misused


Agreed - when they pay their rent.

The vast majority of social tenants pay their rent on time.


Yes, agreed - and if you read my "disgusting attack" carefully, you will see I am only commenting the situations where the tenants' don't pay, and where legitimate pre-war owners are left to pick up their bill.

PiS is using this politically, but Lech Kaczynski from that party also presided over all this theft


I appreciate your neutral point of view here. This is a subject which becomes far too politicised far too quickly.


paints a clear impression that all reprivatisation is bad

OK, the bottom line is this; unless you have been living under a rock for the last 40 years, privatisation has been a catastrophe for the whole west, and it is very much the subject of debate whether the west can even survive this even with theoretically optimal planning, let alone the ramshackle policies that are in evidence at the moment.

It's very shabby window dressing for anarchy. As though no-one has learned any lessons from history whatsoever.