Polish Minister, Target of Court Probe, Resigns : Europe: Janusz Tomaszewski quits after investigation was launched into whether he lied in denying collaboration with nation’s former communist secret police.

The deputy prime minister resigned Thursday after a probe was launched into whether he lied in denying collaboration with Poland’s former communist secret police.

Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek had earlier in the day ordered the dismissal of Janusz Tomaszewski, who also is the interior minister.

Tomaszewski, considered one of the most powerful people in the almost 2-year-old government, resigned when a special court confirmed Thursday that it was investigating him.

A 1997 law requires the screening of top officials to see if they collaborated during decades of communist rule in Poland. Any public official found to have lied in the statement must resign.

In an interview on state television Thursday night, Tomaszewski repeated his denial. He said he was relieved to be free of the pressure.

“It’s not a tragedy,” he said, noting that other political figures have resigned or will face the same situation under the 1997 law.

Tomaszewski, 42, had pledged to resign if the court doubted his statement, saying he could not retain his post if he was not trusted.

The governing coalition’s popularity, led by the Solidarity Electoral Action party, has suffered because of economic reforms this year. With unemployment rising as industries are privatized, many Poles think Buzek’s government has made things worse than when communism was toppled in 1989.

The stern decision by Buzek to fire his deputy prime minister raised concerns of a major rift within the Solidarity movement.

But political analysts said it was Tomaszewski’s quest for personal power and influence that irritated others in the alliance and probably led to his downfall.

“Other Solidarity politicians were afraid of [Tomaszewski] and used the [collaboration] screening to oust him,” said Ernest Skalski, a commentator for the daily newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.