Paying the price for part-time politics

Bitter colleagues in Gdańsk, who have accused Cimoszewicz of making a mockery of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) with his electoral dalliance, are investigating the legal avenues open to the party to recoup some of their losses.

Cimoszewicz's election office spent zł.1.8 million on the futile campaign, out of which as much as zł.1.5 million may have come from SLD party coffers. And now they want it back.

"Cimoszewicz did not act seriously. He was our candidate, all members of the party supported him and he withdrew [from the election] without consulting us. To put it blankly he made a fool of us," said Janusz Krzyczyński, an SLD activist from Gdańsk. SLD members from the region have already dashed off a letter to the party's leader, Wojciech Olejniczak, demanding the return of the money.

The former speaker of the Sejm's faction has refused to entertain these demands. "This claim is some kind of a gloomy joke," said Tomasz Nałęcz, Cimoszewicz's former spokesman. "It looks like some right-wing diversion." SLD leaders have also rubbished the claims and said they will not support any ideas of this kind.