Government braced for more 'tape scandal' revelations

editor0in-chief of "Wprost" Sylwester Latkowski preparing to release more tape contents: photo - PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Wprost magazine - which published tapes of private talks between a government minister and Poland's central bank chief last week, which prompted Prime Minister Donald Tusk to threaten a snap general election – is set to release on Monday exerts of more tapes which could further embarrass the ruling Civic Platform.

The cover of the weekly, released on Twitter on Saturday, shows the magazine has secretly recorded tapes of conversations by foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski, treasury minister Wlodzimierz Karpinski, former finance minister Jacek Rostowski and former CEO of oil giant PKN Orlen Jacek Krawiec among others.

On the Wprost web site, Latwoski says that the contents of the tapes in his possession will not be released in their entirety and “will not relate to any aspects of the private lives” of the politicians and business people.

Cover of Monday's Wprost: Twitter

The magazine has already published tapes of a conversation at a Warsaw restaurant of talks between central banker Marek Belka and interior minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, which appeared to show the two officials discussing a possible deal whereby the National Bank of Poland would make policy moves to the benefit of the government ahead of the 2015 general election in return for a change of finance minister.

The Internal Security Agency raided the Wprost offices on Thursday, trying to obtain access to the tape recordings after the interior minister requested the prosecution service take action after his conversation was bugged.

Video of the raid shows agency officials trying to prize a laptop out of the grasp of Wprost editor-in-chief Sylwester Latkowski, who eventually handed over material to prosecutors on Saturday.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the raid on the magazine's editorial offices last week that “if the crisis in confidence” in the political process continues then he would be forced to try and call a general elections “within weeks”.

Law and Justice (PiS), the largest opposition party currently in parliament, has said that it will not support the dissolution of parliament without a “technical government” first being put in place, PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski has said.

A two-thirds majority is needed in the lower house (Sejm) for parliament to be dissolved, meaning PM Tusk would need some of PiS's MPs to vote for the motion. (pg)