Jacques Pilet on the polish lustration law

The Swiss columnist Jacques Pilet reviews the Polish law on lustration which came in to effect on the 15th March which will mean hundreds of thousands of Polish people having to reveal that they collaborated with the communist secret services. "No other East European country has gone this far and with good reason: anyone familiar with the communist dictatorship knows how it managed to compromise independent personalities through blackmail, intimidation and lies. Not everyone was a hero. Many believed in the Utopia. To punish their weakness or the historical error of such a large number of citizens almost twenty years later, will not purify the country but will open the door to new injustices. No one objects to the fact that the leaders of past regimes are cold shouldered. To institute a new McCarthyism is to move towards totalitarianism. … Most disturbing is the feebleness of the reaction, both in Poland and elsewhere. … Poland is slowly slipping towards totalitarianism observed wearily by Europeans and with delight by the American neocons."

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