Polish government hit by resignations over eavesdropping scandal

Three Polish government ministers and the speaker of parliament resigned June 10 over a high profile eavesdropping scandal just four months ahead of a general election which polls show could usher the conservative opposition into power.

Centrist Prime Minister Ewa Kopacz announced that Parliamentary Speaker Radoslaw Sikorski and the ministers of the treasury, health and sports had resigned as her unpopular government struggles to hold onto power.
 
Polish media on June 9 was awash with news of the publication on the Internet of some 2,500 pages of leaked transcripts from a government eavesdropping scandal that rocked Poland in June last year.    

The transcripts are evidence in an ongoing investigation by Polish justice authorities.
 
Last June, the Polish news magazine Wprost released a secret recording of the central bank chief purportedly cutting a deal with the then interior minister to support the government's economic policy if the finance minister quit.    

The magazine later released transcripts of other wiretapped conversations, including one in which then foreign minister Sikorski allegedly calls Poland's US ties "bullshit" and blasts British Prime Minister David Cameron as "incompetent on EU affairs".    

The private exchanges allegedly took place at a number of swish Warsaw restaurants over a period of several months.    

The bugging affair resulted in charges against several people, including a restaurant manager and waiters -- prompting some to label the affair "Waitergate" on social media.    

Zbigniew Stonoga, the blogger responsible for the leaked files, was questioned by police on June 9. He claims to have found photocopies of the transcripts on a Chinese Internet server....