Polish MPs choose ex-oppositionist to head Remembrance Institute
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
21.07.2016 12:16
The Polish parliament on Thursday chose a historian and former communist-era oppositionist as head of the country’s Institute of National Remembrance, a body set up in the 1990s to probe past crimes against the Polish nation.
Dr Jarosław Szarek. Photo: PAP/Leszek Szymański
Jarosław Szarek was backed by 256 MPs, while 166 voted against him and 13 abstained.
Szarek must now win the approval of the Senate, the upper house, in order to head the Institute of National Remembrance for a five-year term.
In the 1980s Szarek was involved in opposition activities, helping those interned by the country’s communist regime and printing and distributing underground newspapers.
He works for the Institute of National Remembrance in Kraków, southern Poland, and has written extensively on recent Polish history. (pk)
Source: PAP