During Poland’s presidential campaign in 2005, Donald Tusk was forced to explain allegations that his grandfather had served in the Wehrmacht. The information regarding the kin of the candidate was new to the general public in Poland. Apparently, Mr Tusk considered it irrelevant to reveal or explain this information up until it was dug up by journalists. Then, he tried to argue that his grandfather had not volunteered to serve in the Wehrmacht, writes the “V4” news agency.

The general public in Poland was deeply concerned to learn that someone from President Tusk’s family had served in the German army during World War II, thus the politician was forced to give an explanation.

He defended himself by saying that he, too, had just learnt about it, adding however, that: “I have nothing to regret, it’s my family’s biography. As a historian and as a man, I prefer to know the painful truth over a pleasant lie.”

In 2005, during the Polish presidential election campaign, the press published several photos claiming to show Donald Tusk’s grandfather, Jozef Tusk, although the origin of some of the released images have been disputed.

In light of all this, it was quite surprising to see Mr Tusk using a Nazi reference in an interview this week.

He is, however, not the first EU official whose father or grandfather was revealed to have served the Nazi regime. Martin Selmayr, the EC’s former Secretary General, for instance, used his influence to have paragraphs – revealing that his grandfather had been sentenced to life imprisonment as a war criminal after World War II – removed from a Wikipedia article. His other grandfather was also a chief of staff in Hitler’s army.