IPN comes under fire

The Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) has become a focal point for political turmoil, following the resignation of Sławomir Cenckiewicz, head of the IPN's Gdańsk branch.

In a statement sent to the media, Cenckiewicz claimed that "public attacks" against the IPN and himself had motivated his resignation. He added that both he and the IPN had been under pressure from public officials, including the speaker of the Senate, Bogdan Borusewicz.

Cenckiewicz co-authored a high-profile book on former President Lech Wałęsa which was published by the IPN in June. According to the book, Wałęsa collaborated with the communist secret services in the 1970s under the pseudonym "Bolek."

According to IPN president Janusz Kurtyka, the IPN office in Gdańsk received a "brutal" phone call from Borusewicz's office. The person speaking said that publication of the book on Wałęsa would "influence the IPN's budget," Kurtyka told Rzeczpospolita.

The daily claimed that another official had threatened to cut the IPN's budget by zł.30 million if Kurtyka didn't fire Cenckiewicz, although this was not confirmed by Kurtyka.

Bogdan Borusewicz and several members of the ruling Civic Platform (PO) denied claims of political pressure on the institution. Prime Minister Tusk stressed that the IPN was one of several public institutions that would see their funding limited as a part of the government's saving's plan.

The head of the Chancellery of the President, Piotr Kownacki, said the IPN should get a larger budget to speed up long-neglected research on Poland's recent past. "Today we need to do it much faster," Kownacki told TVN24 last week.

PO party officials and PM Tusk have repeatedly stressed they do not intend to harm the IPN. Their statements were undermined last week, however, by comments from controversial PO MP Janusz Palikot, who said that the IPN should be done away with and the documents destroyed.

"[We should…] burn that whole cesspit," Palikot told Radio Zet.