The dispute over Expellees' representative just a German problem

Commenting on the ongoing German-Polish dispute over the president of the Federation of Expellees, Erika Steinbach, the liberal daily Gazeta Wyborcza praises the stance of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle: "Steinbach will … not sit on the board [of the planned German Centre Against Expulsions] because Guido Westerwelle, the foreign minister and leader of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), won't consent to it. Thanks to him the 'Steinbach affair' has ceased to be a German-Polish issue and is now a purely German problem. Westerwelle recently repeated on several occasions that the head of the Expellees [Federation] was damaging German-Polish relations. Although he has come under fire in Germany the FDP leader won't budge. Only yesterday the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that Westerwelle had gone mad and forgotten in which country he is minister."

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