Poland

Poland's battle of the billboards engulfs the Polish president

Classified Polnews

Warsaw, Poland June 27, 2006 - 13 million billboards carrying advertisements for the election of Polish President Kaczynski were paid for by one firm run by one woman and which firm had no employees. The firm is registered in a rundown residence in one town and operated from a residence in another town. And the Polish press is trying to find out what is going on.

In a move that was apparently an opening shot by the Law and Justice Party, which, until just recently, a Polish president was a member, for the fall local elections, a member of Law and Justice Party accused the leading opposition party Civic Platform of illegal campaign financing of billboards used to advertise the Civic Platform presidential candidate, Donald Tusk. And Donald Tusk did not take this lying down. He made counter charges.

And the journalists began their search to find the facts.

The Polish edition of Newsweek carried the results of an investigation done by reporters for Newsweek that has opened many eyes and generated many questions in Poland. It took them some time to find the company that had handled the payments for the 13 million billboards that were placed all around Poland for the Polish presidential campaign of Polish President Lech Kaczynski. They founded the company was registered in a dilapidated and uninhabited residence. And then took them more time find the owner of the company will live in another town. The company is claimed by the woman owner to have existed for five years, have no employees, and to have been operating illegally for its entire time in existence.

That 13 million billboards with casts of the hands of a one-woman firm with to help employees has raised red flags around Poland and journalists are scrambling to get the full background on the financing of the presence billboards. What started out as an attack by Law and just this party against the Civic Platform has now turned into a defensive action by the Law and Justice Party against the prying eyes of inquisitive Polish journalists.

The reaction all Law and Justice Party at the higher levels is that they did not know what was going on. It would seem that the next step in this battle is for the journalist to find out really how much they did not know.