Triple whammy
by Mirko Kaupat
In the end, SLD leaders may have been glad about the assault on a photographer by its party members a few weeks ago, because it made getting rid of Mariusz Łapiński that much easier. The former health minister was sitting in an open air restaurant that belongs to SLD headquarters, together with the former head of his political office, Waldemar Deszczyński, and the dismissed president of the National Health Fund, Aleksander Nauman. By chance, a Newsweek photojournalist saw them and snapped some pictures. But the the gentlemen didn't like this, and what transpired next is still unclear, but in the end two activists from the SLD's youth organization attacked the reporter physically. The photos were published in several papers.
The above-mentioned politicians lost their positions last week. What was so interesting about these "ex-men"? All of them are involved in the same scandal. Deszczyński allegedly demanded a million-dollar bribe from an international pharmaceutical concern while working for the Health Ministry. Nauman, at the time deputy minister at the Health Ministry, and their boss Łapinski, are said to have been part of this affair, too. Most remarkable was Łapiński's reaction. He denied the allegations and attacked the private media by saying that they are a threat to democracy. Later he partially apologized for this verbal attack.
Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who didn't want to have his image further damaged, called the assault on the reporter a scandal. "Each person who plays a public role should expect that they may become the object of intense media interest," he said. Just a day after that, the SLD's general secretary filed a motion against Łapiński and Nauman, claiming that Łapiński might have even initiated the attack himself. The photographer has expressed a similar suspicion, as did the SLD-friendly newspaper Trybuna, which indicated it had seen evidence for that. Sejm speaker and SLD Deputy Leader Marek Borowski insisted that after the incident Łapiński should have resigned from his post as head of the party in the Mazowsze region.
But this problem no longer has to be resolved because on Wednesday Łapiński and Nauman were expelled from the SLD by an internal party court. The official reason was that the two politicians "failed to maintain the good name of the party." However the last word has probably not been said on the matter, because the verdict has no legal weight and Łapinski intends to appeal the decision. "I will certainly do so," he told reporters after the court session.
Meanwhile, investigations into the alleged bribery scandal continue. The party court's quick decision to expel their senior members was also designed to prevent the SLD from being sucked into the vortex of this scandal. The incident in the restaurant was simply a good opportunity. The two young activists caught on film attacking the photographer wrote a letter to the Newsweek reporter, apologizing for the attack. They, too, were expelled from the party.
