Irregularities in the restitution process have been public knowledge for years, but they are now at the heart of political struggle for control of Warsaw which is run by the Civic Platform party, in opposition to the national government.
Since 1990, most Warsaw mayors have been linked to parties that gave rise to the Civic Platform, except between 2002 and 2005 when Law and Justice ran the city and also made some restitution decisions.
