Steffen Seibert, the spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stated today in a press conference that Germany will not pay Greece World War II reparations, following Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ statements yesterday on the same issue.

“It is our firm belief that questions of reparations and compensation have been legally and politically resolved,” said Seibert, adding that “Europe must concentrate on current issues and, hopefully what will be a good future.”

Addressing the Greek parliament, Tsipras accused yesterday Berlin of using legal tricks to avoid paying compensation for the Nazi occupation of his country. More specifically, he stated that Germany has never properly paid reparations for the damage done to Greece by the Nazi Occupation despite the fact that the crimes are still vivid.

“After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the legal and political conditions were created for this issue to be solved. But since then, German governments chose silence, legal tricks and delay,” he said. Berlin has repeatedly stated that the question of war reparations was legally settled in the treaty that unified Germany in 1990 and that it has honored its war obligations with the payment of 59 million euros to Greece in 1960.