Marcin Przydacz, a senior aide to Polish President Andrzej Duda and a former deputy foreign minister, made the statement in a radio interview on Wednesday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
It came after a group of German minority organisations said they would not attend Duda’s annual meeting with members of various religions and ethnic minorities.
The meeting was scheduled for Wednesday.
Poland’s German minority protests
The Association of German Social and Cultural Organisations in Poland (ZNSSK) said it was protesting against what it described as discrimination directed at Poland’s German community.
It added that the number of classes taught in “German as a native language” has been reduced this school year from three to one per week.
The reduction has affected some 50,000 students, according to the association.
'No grounds to claim anyone is being discriminated against in Poland': deputy FM
When asked for a comment by private broadcaster RMF FM, Przydacz said on Wednesday: “There are no grounds at all to claim that anyone is being discriminated against in Poland on the basis of their nationality.”
He added: “If anyone is being discriminated against, it is the Poles living in Germany, because for many years, they have not been able to acquire minority status.”
Przydacz told RMF FM: “The German minority in Poland has its representatives, it has minority status, it has education, it also has double place-names in its towns and villages."
He added: "Meanwhile, Poles in Germany used to enjoy minority status before World War II, but they were deprived of it during Adolf Hitler’s rule and it has not been regained to this day.”
The cuts in German classes for minority school students have been enacted by Poland's parliament, the PAP news agency reported.
The move was first proposed by Janusz Kowalski, an MP with the junior governing coalition party, United Poland.
Kowalski said the cuts were designed “to restore symmetry“ in Polish-German relations, according to news reports.
He added that the German government was not complying with Polish-German agreements that required Berlin to finance classes in “Polish as a native language” for Poles living in Germany, according to PAP.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvp.info