Hundreds of thousands of Poles could be sacked because they were reported to have collaborated with the communist-era secret police, after the country's right-wing government pushed through a law that critics say will spark a witch-hunt.
The move is seen as central to the "moral revolution" promised by the Law and Justice party when it swept to power last autumn, led by Lech Kaczynski and his identical twin, Jaroslaw, who are now the country's president and prime minister respectively.
The former child actors ousted the former leftist government with a vow to purge public life of corruption and of the many former communists who moved seamlessly into prominent and lucrative roles in capitalist Poland after 1989.
Compulsory vetting
Under the new law backed by the Kaczynskis, all Poles born before August 1972 who hold so-called positions of public trust will not be allowed to continue in their jobs without a certificate showing that they were not collaborators.
Compulsory vetting will apply to diplomats, local officials, board members of state-owned companies, media bosses, headmasters, lawyers and journalists -- a list that is expected to include hundreds of thousands of Poland's 38 million-strong population.
Anyone covered by the law who does not apply for clearance could be dismissed, while an employer who does not ensure that his workers request certificates could also be fired.
The security service files of communist-era public figures will be published on the Internet under the new law, together with the names of former secret police officials.
"I am in favor of disclosing all informers, and in favor of screening," said Jaroslaw Kaczynski who, like his twin, was an activist in the Solidarity movement that toppled communism in Poland and undermined it across eastern Europe.
Flawed archives
Opposition leaders said the law opened the way for a witch-hunt against former communists, however, warning that thousands of careers could be ruined on the strength of evidence found in secret police archives that are flawed and incomplete.
"This is a huge mistake," said Wojciech Olejniczak, leader of the opposition Democratic Left Alliance.
"It's going to cause a lot of problems for people who are unable to defend their reputation in court," Olejniczak said.
Critics of the Kaczynskis say the policy is in keeping with staunchly traditionalist Catholic values which saw Lech Kaczynski banning gay parades when he was mayor of Warsaw, calling the organizers "perverts."
But supporters insist the new law is vital to give Poland a clean break from its communist past.
Fresh start
"We have to come to terms with the past to build the foundations of a strong state, where no one will use secret police files to blackmail people," said Law and Justice parliamentarian Andrzej Mularczyk.
Under current rules, members of parliament, judges and top civil servants and security officials must declare whether they collaborated with the communist-era intelligence services.
An admission that they did does not automatically bar them from office, but anyone who is found to have lied can be banned from holding a public post for 10 years.
The new clearance certificates will be issued by the Institute of National Remembrance, which pores over the archives of Poland's communist secret police. People will be able to appeal against the institute's decisions in the courts. Several senior officials, former Solidarity activists and prominent Catholic priests have been accused of collaboration by the institute.
However, most of the accused have denied the allegations, saying the secret police files contained false information intended to discredit them.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was