According to 80-year-old Mazowiecki, the law is an attempt to humiliate people. He said that he had already filed such declarations on 3 separate occasions and does not intend to do that again. Mazowiecki is thus another prominent Polish politician next to a leading Polish member of the European parliament, Bronislaw Geremek who defies the new law passed by Poland's ruling conservative governement in March.

The new law extended existing rules which previously affected only lawmakers, government ministers and judges to academics, journalists, managers of state-owned firms, school principals, diplomats and lawyers.

Each is required to file a declaration saying whether or not they collaborated with the communist-era secret police, on pain of losing their jobs. Refusal to fill in a form could cost the individual their job.