The end of the Third Republic

In Poland, a major initiative is underway to uncover former communist secret service informants, dismiss them from their positions and prosecute them. The driving force is Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who propagates the idea of a clean "Fourth Republic." According to the daily's editor in chief Pawel Lisicki, the government initiative is serving its purpose: "We are not witnessing the collapse of the idea of a Fourth Republic, but the end of the Third Republic. Time has run out for those who were responsible for the functioning of the communist regime. Former officers of the communist secret service and their agents have reached the end of their careers. Thanks to new documentary material that has turned up in cupboards and desk drawers, we can now see how the compromise with the communists functioned... At the same time this raises the issue of the moral and political responsibility of all those politicians and intellectuals who have blocked and are still blocking the process of settling up with the past."

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