Ex-president accused of being Red spook

Former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski was a communist secret police informant in the years 1983-1989. These allegations made in an article by the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) have hit the front pages of the Polish press today. Kwaśniewski, who was president of Poland from 1995 to 2005, was already cleared of the charges by a vetting court in 2000, Gazeta Wyborczapoints out, adding that the report does not add any new evidence against him. The report’s author, Piotr Gontarczyk (known for his notorious book about Lech Wałęsa’s alleged collaboration with communist secret service), insists, however, that the court did not take into account all the circumstances and documents available today. For example, it was generally believed at the time that communist party members (Kwaśniewskim was one) could not be recruited as secret police informants, a fact now proven to be untrue. According to a GW editorialthough, Gontarczyk “interprets all circumstantial evidence against Kwaśniewski,” and dismisses all the facts that might suggest his innocence. Kwaśniewski is the second Polish president after Lech Wałęsa to be accused of collaborating with communist secret police.