Free Republic

Presidential pardon causes controversy 02.12.2005 Poland's outgoing president, Aleksander Kwasniewski, has launched a procedure to pardon a member of the previous, leftwing government who was involved in a scandal, which rocked the Polish political scene for over two years. Zbigniew Sobotka was convicted for 3 and half years in jail for tipping off gangsters about a prepared police action against them. The scandal which involved many left wing politicians brought to light many links and corruption affairs among the former ruling left. President Kwasniewski's decision to pardon Sobotka has given rise to outraged comments from the ruling right wing as...

Polish ex-communists embrace Solidarity legacy 2005-08-18 16:00 By Wojciech Moskwa WARSAW, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Poland's ruling leftists, desperate to escape a drubbing at next month's polls, are seeking to shake off their ex-communist stigma by embracing the myth of the Solidarity movement that toppled communism. With domestic media focused on this month's 25th anniversary of Solidarity strikes and the election campaign heating up, the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) launched a campaign retrospectively backing demands of protesting shipyard workers in 1980. In the advertisements, the SLD's young leaders say they would have supported Solidarity if they had been old enough....