A desperate assault

By Mirko Kaupat

With the emergence of yet another scandal surrounding Mariusz Łapiński, Prime Minister Leszek Miller must surely be glad to have dismissed the politician from his position as health minister a few months ago. Now, Waldemar Deszczyński, one of Łapiński's closest aides during his time in office and the head of his political cabinet, has allegedly sought a multimillion-dollar bribe from a major pharmaceutical company.

"Deszczyński offered his cooperation, and for that he demanded a quick payment of $1.5 million once, and later $1 million-$1.5 million annually," said a report in the daily Rzeczpospolita, citing an anonymous drugmaker said to be a global player. In return, according to the article, Deszczyński offered to put some of the drugs the company produces on the lista refundacyjna, a list of drugs for which producers receive refunds from the government.

It is still not clear, however, if and how far Łapiński himself was involved in this. In his first reaction, he strongly denied all the accusations. But if Łapiński expected the matter to be finished quickly, he was surely disappointed - just one day after the newspaper's publication of the story, Warsaw prosecutor Zbigniew Jaskulski publicly declared that his office would investigate the report.

Responding to that and to the continuing coverage of the supposed scandal, Łapiński lost his nerve in a radio interview and launched a harsh attack on Rzeczpospolita and the rest of the media. "The media are a threat to the safety of the country," he shouted. He also said that Rzeczpospolita was created solely in order to destroy the SLD, the prime minister and parliament, "but also the democratic structures of Poland."

Some called this an unprecedented assault on the media, and many politicians, such as President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and government spokesman Michał Tober, were quick to distance themselves from Łapiński's comments. Tober said that it was hard not to appreciate the role of the free media in the process of transition and in building a democratic society.

And even the SLD eagerly stated that it disagreed with Łapiński's comments. Yet despite this declaration, the scandal might now cast a shadow on the governing party, as Łapiński is still head of the SLD in the Mazowieckie voivodship and, according to some reports, even plans to become the SLD's vice chairman.