Rywin affair

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The Rywin affair (Polish: afera Rywina , based on the Watergate affair also known as Rywingate ) was a corruption scandal in Poland that became known in 2002 .

It is named after the Polish film producer Lew Rywin ( The Pianist , Schindler's List , Hitler Youth Salomon ), who is also referred to by the German media as the “Polish Leo Kirch ”.

The process

On July 22, 2002, Lew Rywin went to Adam Michnik , the editor-in-chief of the largest Polish daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza , and made him an offer: In exchange for a payment of 17 million dollars, a draft law that was being discussed at the time that was supposed to limit the influence of the print media in the broadcasting sector would be approved , to the effect that the newspaper publisher ( Agora SA ) could take over the private television station Polsat or the second program of public television. Rywin pretended to be acting on behalf of an anonymous "group that holds power in its hands" ( grupa trzymająca władzę ), suggesting that the then head of government Leszek Miller was at least initiated by the post-communist SLD .

Michnik secretly recorded the conversation and began research to determine the identity of the group named by Rywin. There was also a meeting between Rywin, Michnik and Miller in his office. Miller denied having anything to do with the deal Rywin proposed; then Rywin - according to the statements of the other two people present - lost his composure and spoke of suicide. Rywin himself later stated that he was drunk during this conversation.

After the Gazeta Wyborcza research had remained inconclusive, it finally made the case public on December 27 and printed the recording of the conversation between Rywin and Michnik, which started the actual public scandal.

In January 2003, a parliamentary committee of inquiry was set up to shed light on the matter.

Regardless of the parliamentary procedure, regular criminal proceedings began against Rywin, in which he was sentenced on April 26, 2003 to two and a half years in prison and a fine of 100,000 zloty (PLN) - for fraud, not for corruption. The court assumed that Rywin had acted on his own account and that the "group" on whose behalf he had claimed to act did not exist. On December 10, 2004, the Warsaw Court of Appeal overturned this judgment and ruled that the "group" actually existed, even if its composition was unknown. Rywin has now been convicted of “protection against payment” and the sentence has been reduced to two years.

Conflicting investigation results

Meanwhile, lengthy interrogations by the committee of inquiry dragged on. On April 5, 2004, the committee of inquiry officially ceased its work. Without discussion, a final report was passed with the votes of the members of SLD and Samoobrona , which came to the same conclusion as the court, according to which Rywin was allegedly a single perpetrator.

However, the deputies, including the committee chairman Tomasz Nałęcz , who lost the final vote, refused to endorse this report and drew up dissenting minority reports. The Sejm should then decide whether to accept the official majority report or a minority report. On September 24, 2004 the Sejm decided to accept the most radical minority variant, in which the presumed backers are named:

Long-term consequences for political culture

The long-term consequences of the affair for Poland's political culture cannot yet be foreseen. What is certain is that the traditionally great distrust of the state and politics in the population has been nourished. Even the reputation of Adam Michnik , once a legendary figure of the anti-communist resistance, was damaged ; he was suspected of being more deeply involved in the affair. More and more people are convinced that the political and journalistic classes are deeply involved in corruption and organized crime. B. comparable to the Dutroux affair in Belgium . The fact that high-ranking politicians, including the Prime Minister, were ultimately "exposed" as masterminds caused less satisfaction for many than further disaffection with politics : On the one hand, they continued to deny all allegations and could not be held criminally accountable for the time being; on the other hand, it was evident that the radical draft of the final report was ultimately only adopted through clever tactics by the interested groups in the Sejm . This made it clear to many that this was less about establishing the truth and more about power games.

If anyone personally benefited from the Rywin affair, it was Jan Maria Rokita , the representative of the largest opposition party “Civic Platform” ( Platforma Obywatelska / PO ) on the committee of inquiry, whose meetings were broadcast live on television. With his aggressive demeanor, Rokita distinguished himself as a tough enlightener and rose to become the most important opposition politician within a few months. In addition, the conservative right-wing populist party “Law and Justice” ( Prawo i Sprawiedliwość / PiS ), whose main topic is the fight against corruption , benefited from the affair in the media.

The Rywin affair was pushed into the background by another affair that drew even wider circles: the so-called Orlen affair ( Afera Orlenu , Orlengate ) about the privatization of the Polish energy company of the same name .

Against the background of these affairs, the party “Law and Justice” ( Prawo i Sprawiedliwość / PiS ) in particular articulated the demand that the “Third Republic” , which had existed since 1989, had failed. It must therefore be “cleansed” of corrupt politicians and business people and transformed into a “Fourth Republic” ( IV Rzeczpospolita ) with a new, more authoritarian constitution .

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