Head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), Mariusz Kaminski has said PM Tusk’s decision to sack him today is “politically motivated”.

Tusk announced the decision today to sack Kaminski at a press conference, where he also announced the resignation of three of his ministers from the Civic Platform party, in connection with the Blackjack scandal.

“During my two years of working with Donald Tusk, I considered him the head of a state government. Now I am convinced that he is only a leader of his own political party”, Kaminski wrote in a statement following the PM’s press conference.

President Lech Kaczynski, currently on a state visit to Romania, was equally scathing of PM Tusk’s attempt to, as he sees it, distance his party from corruption allegations by sacking the head of the anti corruption unit.

“We are confronted here with a huge scandal [in government]. But now it seems that those who have discovered the scandal [the CBA] are the guilty party.’

Criticism also came from the left wing opposition.

“The crisis in the government reaches deep and the PM does not talk of the most important issues but tries to rescue the ruling Civic Platform from drowning,” said leader of the Democratic Left Alliance, Grzegorz Napieralski.  He added that the sacking of Mariusz Kaminski as head of the CBA smacks of “political revenge”.  

The Anti-Corruption Bureau has been a controversial body since it was set up by the previous Law and Justice-led government in 2006. Critics have said that it has targeted political opponents of Law and Justice, while its supporters say that it is only carrying out its functions as stated in law. (ab/pg)

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Three more ministers resign in Blackjack affair, thenews.pl, Oct 7