As the publication date of the IPN’s (Institute of National Remembrance) book on Wałesa’s past gets nearer, the situation gets hotter and hotter. Although the former President has obviously not read the book yet, he has already warned the current President Lech Kaczyński that he is going to sue him for calling him “agent Bolek”. He has now clarified the matter of a possible lawsuit and will sue him for compensation of €1 million. More precisely, he will sue anyone who takes part in the publication of any libellous material, which is based on false SB (Poland’s former security services) information.
“There is enough time and evidence to withdraw and apologise,” says Mr Walesa on his website. This is how he reacted to the forthcoming book of two IPN historians Mr Cenckiewicz and Mr Gontarczyk – who claim to have gathered evidence about Wałęsa cooperating with the SB as the infamous agent Bolek. It is unusual, indeed, for an unpublished book to provoke such emotions. All of last week Mr Wałęsa brought out increasingly bigger guns against his opponents. Namely, he warned anyone who had a hand in publishing the book, particularly President Kaczyński and Mr Kurtyka (the chairman of IPN) that he will sue them for €1 million in compensation. Before this, Mr Wałęsa announced that he will sue the President for claiming he was the agent Bolek. Moreover, Mr Wałęsa believes “Mr Kaczyński is a little man, full of complexes” and “there always are people, like the Kaczyńskis and Zybertowicz (security adviser to the President), and others, who keep rummaging around in dung,” he thundered yesterday on TVN 24.
The former President also claims that every action taken against him is part of “an intentional and well-developed campaign aimed at destroying” his good name and the importance of Solidarity’s victory. In his reply, Mr Kaczyński stated that “now, the question is whether Polish public life will be based on the principle of access to the truth or on certain mechanisms that are intended to conceal it”. This was a reply to Mr Wałęsa’s letter, in which the latter demands the former’s apology.
Dziennik
