Acting president Bronislaw Komorowski has signed a bill on the role of the Institute of National Remembrance, contrary to the late president Lech Kaczynski’s wishes.
The new bill on the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) drafted by the ruling Civic Platform aims at neutralizing the controversial institution which, they claim, the Kaczynski brothers used as a tool to hunt out politicians, journalists and artists who had ties with the communist-era secret police.
Civic Platform MPs argue that the institute under the command of Janusz Kurtyka has become increasingly politicised. “It spoke the same language as the Law and Justice party and promoted the same vision of Polish history,” said Civic Platform’s Bronislaw Komorowski
He added that the new bill, which introduces a new way of electing IPN’s governing board, will guarantee the institute’s independence.
Komorowski’s decision to sign the bill has outraged Law and Justice, who think that the acting president should respect the will of the late president Lech Kaczynski and forward the bill on the Institute of National Remembrance to the Constitutional Tribunal.
Kaczynski was to do this after coming back from the celebrations marking 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, claiming the bill was unconstitutional.
According to the new bill, the head of the National Remembrance Institute will be elected by the simple majority vote in the Sejm after a proposal by the IPN’s Council (earlier, 3/5 majority was necessary to elect the head of the institute who was proposed by the IPN’s Commission). The IPN’s Council would include representatives of prestigious Polish universities and historians from the Polish Academy of Sciences elected by the Sejm and representatives of Polish judiciary system, elected by the President. (mg)