Poland's witch-hunt

The drastic extension of Poland's law on collaboration with the former communist security services has now run into determined…

The drastic extension of Poland's law on collaboration with the former communist security services has now run into determined opposition from one of its most distinguished anti-communist leaders, Dr Bronislaw Geremek.

A founder member of the Solidarity trade union, several times minister and medieval historian he is now a member of the European Parliament. His outright refusal to obey the new law which demands that 700,000 Poles declare whether they "secretly or knowingly" gave such information will severely test its ethical and political credentials. As he says, it "threatens freedom of speech, media freedom and the autonomy of the individual. It creates a kind of ministry of truth or a police of memory."

Behind this confrontation there lies a complex story of Poland's relationship with its post-war history and how this has affected its transition to democracy. Up to now lawmakers, government ministers and judges have been required to state whether they collaborated with Poland's secret services during the communist years. These services were all-pervasive, accumulating massive files on individuals and families. Their information was frequently based on blackmail, innuendo and speculation. It was fed directly into the communist party-state apparatus and was often the basis for promotion and preferment of senior personnel.

Last month's law requires academics, journalists, managers of state firms, school principals, diplomats and lawyers to provide this information or face the sack if they refuse. Neither former communists nor Catholic clergy are included. If they confirm collaboration they face a lengthy investigation in state archives to confirm it, and very possibly immediate disciplinary action just as serious as a refusal. So-called "lustration" is the hallmark policy of Poland's governing coalition led by the prime minister Jaroslav Kaczynski, whose twin brother Lech is president of the country. They say Poland's transition was utterly compromised by tacit or explicit agreement between anti- and post-communist elites not to delve deeply into collaboration so as to facilitate their carve-up of power in the 1990s.

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In fact the policy has been driven in a populist, anti-liberal fashion so as to consolidate and extend the ruling coalition's hold on power. It is dangerously intolerant of individual conscience and takes little or no account of previous statements by prominent figures such as Dr Geremek that they did not collaborate with the Stalinist secret police. It is associated with parallel campaigns against gays and with anti-semitic rhetoric from extreme nationalists and Catholics. Dr Geremek deserves support for his principled stand against this law.