Bribery scandal turmoil threatens Polish PM
April 4 2003





Poland's embattled Prime Minister, Leszek Miller, has called for the 2005 general election to be brought forward, amid growing suspicions about his role in a corruption scandal.

Mr Miller is under increasing scrutiny over an affair that has riveted the country. The film producer Lew Rywin, who co-produced this year's Oscar-winning film The Pianist, allegedly tried to solicit a $US17.5 million ($29 million) bribe from the publisher and editor of Poland's leading newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza.

Rywin said he was working for Mr Miller to change a hotly debated law on media ownership in favour of Gazeta's parent company.

Mr Miller denies any connection to the alleged bribe attempt by Rywin, a personal friend.

But President Alexander Kwasniewski said Mr Miller ought to have told police of the alleged bribe when he first learnt of it last year.


Mr Miller proposed bringing the election forward to June next year, saying: "We are on the doorstep of a new reality, where it would be helpful to gain a new democratic mandate."

The announcement comes in the same week that two more cabinet ministers left Mr Miller's Government, and just ahead of a referendum on Poland's entry into the European Union.

Mr Kwasniewski suggested less than two weeks ago that Mr Miller might have to resign to preserve Poland's chances of joining the EU.

MPs say he should appear before a commission investigating the scandal.

The New York Times

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