The Sejm approved a bill that would remove people who collaborated with the communist secret services (SB) from public life.
The bill, which now needs Senate and presidential approval, could lead to the dismissal of thousands of people working in government, business and media.
Unlike other former Soviet-bloc countries, Poland purged people who cooperated with the former communist regime and the issue has been contentious over the past 17 years.
President Lech Kaczynski and his twin brother Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski won the elections last year largely on the notion that they would remove the last vestiges of communist influence in Polish political and economic life.
Under the proposed law, public figures, judges, teachers, journalists and others affected by the law could be sacked if they are found to have collaborated or if they fail to apply for a vetting certificate.
Files on public figures dating from the era of communist rule, which ended in 1989 in Poland, will be published on the internet under the law, together with the names of former secret police officials.
The measure would be a significant extension of the current legislation, which requires MPs, ministers, judges, senior officials and a number of other public figures to sign a document stating whether or not they collaborated with communist secret police and intelligence services.
The present legislation affects about 27,000 people while the new law could affect several hundred thousand, according to official estimates.
There are problems with the secret police files, however. Many have been tampered with. Recently, PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski declared that certain documents in his files were forgeries. Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska also resigned due to accusations that she had collaborated with the SB.
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