POLAND:Poland's deputy prime minister has accused the country's leading newspaper of attempting a "coup d'etat" after it said he demanded sexual favours from a woman in exchange for a job.
Last week Gazeta Wyborcza printed an interview with a woman who claimed that Andrzej Lepper, the fiery leader of the left-wing Self Defence farmers' party, had promised her a job in 2001 if she had sex with him.
The woman, Aneta Krawczyk, agreed and later became a councillor for Self Defence in the city of Lodz.
She claimed also that she was forced to have sex with Mr Lepper's deputy, Stanislaw Lyzwinski, and that he had fathered her third child.
But DNA test results at the weekend proved otherwise, damaging Ms Krawczyk's credibility and that of the newspaper.
"Gazeta Wyborcza and others were preparing a coup d'etat.
"We will lodge motions with the appropriate services, in particular the Internal Security Agency (ABW)," said Mr Lepper, deputy prime minister and agriculture minister, who had denied the sex claims.
He demanded increasing tighter press control and for the maximum penalties for slander to be increased. But the sex scandal is far from over.
Prosecutors interviewed eight people yesterday, including six who have told similar "job for sex" stories involving Mr Lyzwinski and Mr Lepper.
Ms Krawczyk's lawyer told Polish media yesterday that her client had many partners at the time she conceived her third child, including Mr Lepper, insinuating that the Self Defence leader might be the father of the child.
She added that Ms Krawczyk was prepared to offer prosecutors a description of Mr Lepper's "intimate area" as proof that she had a sexual relationship with the politician.
Gazeta Wyborcza defended its decision to print the allegations, saying it was for prosecutors to prove "whether (Lepper) participated in these disgusting practices . . . but we know he knew about them".
The conservative Rzeczpospolita criticised its left-wing rival for "passing moral judgment" on Mr Lepper and for presenting Ms Krawczyk as "an unambiguous victim of male lust".
The daily Dziennik was more reflective, saying: "The DNA test shows that Ms Krawczyk invents things.
"It will be harder, much harder, to convince public opinion that the questions concerning Self Defence are not invented too."
Nevertheless, the newspaper said the scandal had shown Poles how "Mr Lepper and his paladins treat people as a commodity, women too".
