22/8/2006- Poland's far-right League of Polish Families (LPR), a partner in the ruling coalition, called for the reversal of a series of privatisations in the energy and banking sectors. LPR leader Roman Giertych said he wanted 'the annullation of the most scandalous privatisations' carried out after the end of communism in Poland in 1989. Giertych, cited by the PAP news agency, said that a number of big privatisations took place illegally and saw 'enormous national assets appropriated.' He did not name the companies involved in the privatisations he wanted scrapped. Giertych's call came on the day that a special parliamentary commission began probing banking sector privatisations. The commission, set up by Poland's ruling conservatives, consists of ten deputies who are examining the activities of the central bank and the bank's chiefs, the stock exchange, the treasury and finance ministries and ministry officials. The decision to set up the commission was taken in March after a bitter battle between the government and liberal central bank chief Leszek Balcerowicz. Balcerowicz -- one of the architects of Poland's transformation from a centralised to free-market economy -- said at the time that the decision to investigate the central bank was an unprecedented attack on the institution's independence. The LPR, together with the populist, anti-liberal Samoobrona, entered government in May after striking a coalition deal with the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party headed by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. All three parties have accused Poland's previous governments of selling off formerly state-owned banks to foreign entities for knock-down prices.
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