New tapes expose conflicts and little games at the heart of the ex-ruling Civic Platform
The tvp.info portal on Sunday published new secret recordings from the "Sowa and Friends" restaurant. Dating from February 2014, the materials represent the latest twist in a wire-tapping scandal which rocked the previous government.
This time, the recordings contain a conversation between the then Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and Jacek Krawiec, who was CEO of the state oil giant Orlen at the time.
The men are pondering Civic Platform's chances of retaining power, but they also discuss internal affairs of the party, including the conflict between the then Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Grzegorz Schetyna.
"Grzesiu is trying to sneak up on power, but when the push comes to shove, he bottles it", Sikorski is heard saying. He adds that if he were Schetyna, he would stand against Tusk in the party leadership elections. "Grzesiu would get up to 40 percent of the votes and would be too strong to be purged", Sikorski says, adding that Schetyna could then wait for any missteps on Tusk's part, whereupon he could "knife him in the back".
Tvp.info reports that at one point, Sikorski says "political heirs have a short life in Poland", laughing at press reports that Schetyna represents a strong faction within the Civic Platform. "There are three of them, for f***'s sake", Krawiec comments.
Sikorski then says Schetyna has a vulgar demeanour, reminiscent of "a smalltime bum from Lviv", and is not fit to be prime minister. The then foreign minister adds he "never heard Schetyna say anything memorable" and doesn't know where he stands on any issue. Krawiec retorts that he would make a good aide.
Sikorski says Schetyna is always trying to put himself in the middle between competing stances, "lacks creativity", and would "make an ideal number two", but not a prime minister, as "he can't charm people". This is in contrast to Donald Tusk, who has "this charm, this teflon, this keen political sense of a cat, this socially sensitive antennae".
The Orlen CEO adds that Schetyna lacks ability as a public speaker and has poor aides, such as Andrzej Halicki, whom Krawiec describes as his neighbour and "a moron".
The then foreign minister says Schetyna failed as head of the Sejm (lower house) foreign affairs committee, as he was completely inactive and in fact wanted the post solely because of the perks, that is, "a separate office".
The two men also discuss the upcoming parliamentary elections, which, in fact, swept Civic Platform from power. But at the time, both conversation partners are quite optimistc. "Only when there are too many thieves, do you have a problem", Sikorski says, to which Krawiec replies: "We are really transparent at the moment, compared to European standards".
Both men also decry the former transport minister Slawomir Nowak's failure to report being gifted a watch by a businessman. Sikorski and Krawiec then discuss watches, with the foreign minister saying that "paying EUR 10,000 for a watch is almost like getting it free". (PAP)
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NOTE 1: The tape scandal was a 2014 affair around compromising tapings of Civic Platform (PO) top politicians secretly made during their private conversations at Warsaw restaurants (Sowa and Friends and Amber Room), where they consumed sumptuous dinners mostly paid for with taxpayers' money.
The tapes became viral for explicit language used by Civic Platform (PO) big shots and their lax approach towards state issues ("this country is a stack of sh.. and rubble" and "this country exists on paper only" were the most famous quotes, coming from then Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz - PAP).
The recordings also revealed the existence of close ties between Civic Platform and top Polish businessmen as well as instances of exerting pressure, among others, on the Treasury Control Office to delay audits of a firm belonging to PO government Infrastructure Minister Slawomir Nowak's wife.
According to the tapes, not only was the National Bank of Poland (NBP) involvement in funding PO's campaign being discussed, but additionally, the then head of NBP Marek Belka informed PM Donald Tusk that Amber Gold was a dangerous financial pyramid still before the outbreak of the affair, so-called "the Amber Gold scandal" (see: NOTE 2).
In early June 2017, Polish public broadcaster TVP Info aired some previously unknown recordings. According to TVP Info, the recordings are of officials including then-government spokesman Pawel Gras, Treasury Minister Wlodzimierz Karpinski and Government Protection Bureau head Gen. Marian Janicki, in addition to Roman Catholic priest Kazimierz Sowa.
The new recordings contain a conversation about issues including appointments in state-run energy giant Tauron.
NOTE 2: The Amber Gold shadow bank, which proved to be a pyramid scheme was to invest clients' money in gold and other precious metals. The couple who ran the bank in the years 2009-2012 has been charged with swindling ap. 18,000 people out of savings worth around PLN 850 million.
"State agencies responsible for citizens' financial safety (the Financial Supervision Authority, the National Bank of Poland, prosecutors, fiscal offices, the Internal Security Agency and courts) had not reacted or were sluggish in doing so", reads the Law and Justice report.
Since August 2012 Amber Gold head Marcin P. and his wife have been in custody awaiting lawsuit. If convicted they face up to 15 years in jail. The ongoing investigation, including the one of MP Malgorzata Wasserman-headed Sejm committee probes, among others, exceptional laxness previous government's financial authorities applied towards the emergence and the very operation of Amber Gold shadow bank, all to recurring signals of suspicious activity of the institution. (PAP)
