Warsaw woes: How Germany wants to fix its toxic relationship with Poland

BERLIN – Germany’s new coordinator for relations with Poland, Knut Abraham, had been in office for just three days when his job got a lot harder.

On the night of 1 June, the Christian Democrat MP stayed up late listening to radio coverage of Poland’s presidential election until he unwittingly fell asleep.

Exit polls projected a narrow victory for Rafał Trzaskowski, backed by centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, an ally of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. But when Abraham woke up, the final count confirmed the far-right nominee, Karol Nawrocki, as the winner.

Abraham's first thought was: “This will be a challenge, for the German-Polish relations as well."

It's him who has to confront it. As coordinator, Abraham will support one of Merz’s core European policy goals: repairing a relation