Polish central bank governor Adam Glapinski, under pressure to resign following reports of a female aide's high salary, said on Wednesday he backed legislation that would allow for full transparency over what employees at the bank earn.
But Glapinski, who is close to Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), also branded media discussion of what his aides might earn as "sexist" and said politicians should not comment on the bank's practices as it is independent.
Earlier on Wednesday PiS spokeswoman Beata Mazurek backed new legislation allowing for central bank salary details to be made public. PiS, facing a national election later this year, is anxious to quell the dispute over public officials' salaries.
"I will fully support this bill on transparency in the central bank, I can reveal the pay list. They should pass this bill, our lawyers can help," Glapinski told a news conference after the bank, as expected, left its main interest rate unchanged at a record low of 1.5 percent.
Opposition politicians have called on Glapinski to resign after newspaper reports that one of his aides was paid an unusually high salary. The bank has denied a report that the aide earned nearly four times more than Poland's president.
Dismissing his critics, Glapinski said the outside world was "unfazed" by what he called "gossip" about pay and he said reporters' questions about whether he should resign were "provocative".
The pay issue has jangled nerves in Polish financial markets in recent days, with the zloty losing some ground.
In her first public comments on the pay issue, Finance Minister Theresa Czerwinska said on Wednesday: "Certainly, turbulence around the central bank is not supportive to how foreign investors assess us."
Officials in PiS, which has long cast itself as the party of ordinary, patriotic, hard-working Poles battling against a corrupt Warsaw elite, are closely monitoring developments.
PiS remains ahead in opinion polls but any perception that it is trying to shield wealthy bankers from closer public scrutiny could dent its hopes of winning another large parliamentary majority.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters