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| By Associated Press December 1, 2006 |
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A right-wing Polish European Parliament lawmaker dismissed his assistant on Thursday after a newspaper published a photo of her giving a straight-armed Nazi salute at a rally with a burning swastika in the background.
European deputy Maciej Giertych of the ultra-conservative Catholic League of Polish Families, who is also the father of Polish Education Minister Roman Giertych, dismissed Leokadia Wiacek after seeing the photo, the party said in a statement.
The party expressed "pain" over views "which contradict the principles of Polish patriotism," and said it regretted a person holding such opinions "fulfilled the role of the parliamentarian's assistant."
In a separate statement, Wiacek apologized for her "irresponsible behavior."
The fallout comes a day after the daily Dziennik newspaper's Web site posted a short home video claiming to show a night rally of neo-Nazis ritualistically burning a large swastika and chanting "sieg heil." In its print version, the paper published a picture of Wiacek and other youths giving the Nazi salute in front of the flaming swastika.
The newspaper, which said it obtained the video from an "informant," suggests the incident was a rally of the All-Polish Youth, the youth movement of the League of Polish Families.
The propagation of Nazi ideology and symbols is a criminal offense in Poland. and prosecutors in Gliwice, in southern Poland where the rally reportedly took place, have launched an investigation into the incident, prosecutor Alina Skoczynska said.
Roman Giertych asked for the investigation after the video became public, saying though there was no proof the All-Polish Youth were involved, if they were they deserved to be punished.
Giertych and his party have been a controversial presence in the country's conservative government since it joined a three-party coalition deal led by Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's Law and Justice party in May, in large part because of Giertych's links to the All-Polish Youth.
Members of the group have repeatedly attacked gay rights marches in Poland in past years with objects such as stones and eggs and have reportedly used Nazi gestures and slogans during some street rallies.
In her statement, Wiacek strove to distance her actions from the group, saying she "was not a member of the All-Polish Youth at the time."
Shows of neo-Nazi support are rare in Poland, a nation to Germany's east that Hitler's forces invaded and occupied during World War II. An estimated 6 million Polish citizens, about half of them Jewish, were killed during the war.
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