Bronislaw Geremek defies the Polish government

Maja Zoltowska, correspondent for the daily in Poland, denounces the lustration law as a "Warsaw-style purge", which is obliging several hundreds of thousands of people to make written declarations of whether or not they collaborated with the former communist police. "The law has given rise to much criticism in Poland, but Bronislaw Gemerek, an emblematic figure of Solidarity, a renowned medieval historian and former Foreign Minister, aged 75, is the only member of Parliament to have said 'no'. ... In terms of the law, a simple refusal entails the loss of all public responsibilities. The Polish political class reacted bitterly yesterday to Bronislaw Geremek's gesture. Geremek's behaviour 'is not helping Poland', said the Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The reaction of the members of European Parliament is a new slap in the face for a government that has turned 'decommunisation' into its war horse."

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