Rywin Affair - Long-term Impact On Political Culture

Long-term Impact On Political Culture

The long-term impact of the affair on Poland's political culture has yet to be fully assessed. Certainly, it has once more reinforced the Polish population's already deeply rooted traditional suspicion of the state and politicians. Well-known former dissident Adam Michnik's reputation has been damaged as he was suspected to be more deeply entangled in the scandal, although in what way remains unclear. His friendly relations with members of the former communist political establishment were exposed. More and more Poles are convinced that politicians and opinion-leaders are involved with the large-scale shadow economy.

While some were certainly satisfied when high-ranking politicians were supposedly revealed as masterminds, this has also disenchanted even more people away from politics: On the one hand, the supposed delinquents deny all accusations and cannot be held accountable; on the other hand, it was quite obvious that the Sejm's acceptance of the minority report, which claimed the involvement of high-ranking politicians, had itself been due to some clever tactics of the interested opposition factions and a certain inattentiveness of the SLD. This created the impression that the opposition was not really interested in neutrally establishing the truth, either, but rather playing a power game of its own.

The one person who seems to have benefited the most from the affair was Jan Rokita, the representative of the largest opposition party Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) at the time and a member of the investigative committee, the hearings of which were broadcast live on TV. With his aggressive style of interrogation he made a name for himself as a tough investigator, thus establishing himself as the opposition's most important figure within a few months and at the time came to be considered as the most likely aspirant to the post of prime minister after a probable SLD election defeat in 2005.

Apart from that, the right-wing party Law and Justice (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość), whose defining themes are the fight against crime and corruption, had benefited from the affair, which contributed to raising its public profile. It was the party's deputy Zbigniew Ziobro who had authored the radical minority report the Sejm had passed.

By late 2004, however, the Rywin affair had already being overshadowed by another scandal, which could have even more far-reaching effects: The so-called Orlen affair (afera Orlenu, Orlengate) surrounding the privatization of the largely state-owned oil giant PKN Orlen.

Against the background of these affairs, right-wing politicians, in particular from the Law and Justice party, began calling for an end to the post-1989 Third Republic, which they consider inherently weak, morally corrupt and controlled by cliques. In what Law and Justice's presidential candidate Lech Kaczyński and eventual winner of the presidential election called a "moral revolution", it should be completely replaced with a Fourth Republic, a "strong and moral state" .