PiS MPs Slam Giertych Tapes, Raise Tusk Concerns

Recordings suggest that Giertych helped organize the release of a letter (authored in his father's name but apparently penned by the son) to sour voter support for PiS before the election. The controversial revelations have inflamed political hurly-burly and upset PiS members.

Media Control and Political Pressure Charges
Anna KwiecieÅ„, a member of parliament, denounced the tapes and said there was "a disgusting wave of manipulation" from the people now in power who used to be in opposition. Giertych accuses Piotrowicz of wanting to discredit Po and his party leader Rybak GliÅ„ski. Giertych and others "use disgusting methods, and the spread of falsehood has become their daily bread", adding that the tapes prove the letter campaign came from Giertych.

She also hit out at certain parts of the media, describing them as "tools in the hands of powerful politicians, such as Giertych" who pursue interests against the national interest of Poland.

MP BartÅ‚omiej Wróblewski said: "The tapes show the strategy of Civic Platform activists – both politicians and journalists – who used and abused religious media and tried to build specific scenarios for Catholics, false statements, things that one could have thought or suspected but the fact it is documented is something different.

"Tapes Affair 2.0" and National Security Worries
Janusz Kowalski went further and described Giertych as a centrepiece person for the biggest business tycoons and media entrepreneurs who supposedly co-operate to ruin PiS. He called the situation a "new Tapes Affair 2.0," and claimed that the connections between Donald Tusk and Giertych are a serious threat to Poland's security.

Kowalski also implied that Giertych has criminal records and documents incriminating Tusk and thus he was refused release, a version suggesting Giertych has compromising files on Tusk, making him an asset rather than a political liability.

The larger implication of the Giertych tapes, brought into the open by the allegations, is the deepened political divide and the magnified intra-leadership intrigue within the Civic Coalition.