Kacper Płażyński, a member of parliament with Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, announced the initiative at a news conference in the northern city of Gdańsk, the tvp.info website reported.
His move came after German media reported that Wintershall Dea, a joint venture between BASF and Russian business magnate Mikhail Fridman, supplied Russia with components for aviation fuel.
According to Germany's state broadcaster ZDF and the Der Spiegel magazine, Wintershall Dea delivered jet fuel ingredients to Russia’s state-owned gas company Gazprom, which in turn supplied them to Russian military airports near the Ukraine border.
These airports house a fleet of Sukhoi fighter jets, which are believed to have bombed civilian targets in Ukraine’s southern port of Mariupol, among other cities, ZDF reported, as cited by Poland's wpolityce.pl website.
'BASF selling component' for Russian aviation fuel
Płażyński told reporters on Tuesday: “BASF, one of the biggest chemical companies in the world … used to earn money in the German death camp of Auschwitz. It made enormous profit from slave labour during World War II.”
He added that "one of BASF’s subsidiaries produced Zyklon B," the chemical used to murder people in gas chambers during the Holocaust.
Moreover, BASF was part of the consortium that built the controversial Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream gas pipelines, “the tool that allowed Russia to start the war in Ukraine,” Płażyński stated.
He added: “Today, BASF is selling a component for aviation fuel to the Russians, thanks to which they are able to kill Ukrainian children.”
Taxman to 'check if BASF's Polish subsidiaries bear some responsibility'
He added that “the German state can’t be expected to discipline German companies,” because “Germany simply wants to do business with Russia, enrich itself in this way … regardless of the costs for Ukraine and the whole of Europe.”
“And so decent countries such as Poland must find a way to oppose this and hence my initiative regarding BASF,” he told reporters.
Płażyński said he was certain Poland's National Revenue Administration (KAS) "will analyse the matter thoroughly and check if BASF's Polish subsidiaries bear some responsibility for the policy of the corporation, in which case appropriate fines, very strict fines, will be slapped.”
He added that “there can be no tolerance for those who want to make money on the killing of innocent people.”
According to Płażyński, “Germany sometimes apologises for wrongdoing, but it doesn’t want to take real responsibility for its actions,” whether “for doing business with Russian terrorists or in many other matters.”
He added: “We, the Polish people, know it all too well. We are victims of this approach.”
Wednesday is day 259 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: tvp.info, wpolityce.pl, spiegel.de