Calls For Freedom of Information
A Polish legislature panel investigating allegations of high-level bribery broadened its mission this week, demanding the release of communist-era secret files on President Aleksander Kwasniewski and 31 other officials.
The motion was brought by a right-wing legislator, Roman Giertych, who said his League of Polish Families is "leading a political struggle to cleanse the public life of former agents and collaborators."
Poland - unlike some parts of the former Soviet bloc - has waged no all-out public effort to identify and remove communist-era figures from political life but a drive has been building slowly to purge the country of remnants of its former regime.
The efforts brought about the resignation last week of the speaker of the legislature, Jozef Oleksy, after a screening court found he had illegally concealed collaboration with communist secret services.
It has also led to recent allegations that Malgorzata Niezabitowska, a Solidarity activist and spokeswoman for Poland's first democratically elected government, passed on information to secret police. She acknowledges speaking with police once but said she passed on no vital information and denies ever having been an agent.
On Friday, it remained unclear whether or when Poland's National Remembrance Institute - which has custody of secret files from the communist era - would grant the request to open the files on Kwasniewski, a former communist, and the 31 others, including Prime Minister Marek Belka.
The institute's director, Leon Kieres, said he had received no formal request but noted the commission has the legal right to seek the files - suggesting he might comply.
The request came from a panel set up months ago to investigate the so-called Orlen affair - a complex web of claims that include allegations Kwasniewski used his position to influence the sell-off of a state-owned oil refinery to Russians.
Kwasniewski denies the allegations and his supporters have accused the panel of waging a witch hunt against leftists as a way of gaining popular support ahead of elections this year.
Right-wing parties investigating the allegations have in general justified their request for access to the files by arguing national security is at stake. They said Russia could use knowledge of communist-era collaboration to blackmail them today and control Poland's energy sector.
Giertych said Friday the commission believes the Orlen scandal has "roots in the system of the (secret) services of communist-era Poland and of the early 1990s, so we are looking for information on ties with these services of the people we are questioning."
The motion to open the files was brought and voted on at a session late Wednesday attended by only five of the 11 commission members.
The move has met with protest, with the leader of the main conservative party, Jan Rokita of the Civic Platform, calling it a "night coup" and asking for a new vote by the full panel.