Published June 10, 2015
Four Polish government ministers and the parliamentary speaker tendered their resignations on Wednesday amid a revived 2014 scandal over secret recordings made of them and other officials.
The ministers of health, sports, the treasury and security, and parliamentary speaker Radek Sikorski, said they were stepping down for the good of the Civil Platform party just four months before a general election.
"As long as I am the prime minister, I will not allow for political games over the tapes," Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz. "Today, on behalf of Civic Platform, I extend my heartfelt apologies" to party supporters who "listened to the tapes with disgust, irritation."
Government ministers and Sikorski were secretly taped during private meetings in Warsaw restaurants in 2013 and 2014. The tapes were leaked to a weekly magazine and published, and Poles were angered that politicians, lobbyists and business people were debating deals and promotions while dining over baby lobster.
The interior minister at the time, Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz, lost his job over the scandal.
An investigation into the illegal recordings is still underway. The scandal was revived this week after classified files from the investigation were leaked onto Facebook. One man has been charged over the latest leak.
Kopacz has indicated she will fire Prosecutor General Andrzej Seremet, who is overseeing the investigation. She said the probe is slow-going and that she doesn't accept his report on why the classified files from the investigation were leaked this week.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/polish-officials-offer-resignations-over-taping-scandal