Image copyright AP Image caption The raid on Wprost's offices by a prosecutor was broadcast live by several TV channels in Poland 
 
 Poland's justice minister has said a controversial raid to find leaked tapes that embarrassed the government "should have never taken place". 
 
 Marek Biernacki said the raid on the offices of a news magazine had raised "legitimate concerns". 
 
 Wprost published an alleged private conversation in which Poland's top banker discusses the next election with a minister. 
 
 Under Polish law, the central bank must remain independent of politics. 
 
 Transcripts of the recordings, made at a restaurant in Warsaw popular with politicians, were published earlier this week. 
 
 In the recording, Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz is allegedly heard talking to Marek Belka, head of the National Bank of Poland. 
 
 Mr Belka is apparently heard calling for Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski to be removed in return for the bank's support in the event of an economic crisis. 
 
 Mr Rostowski was replaced four months later - but Prime Minister Donald Tusk denies this was as a result of the taped discussion. 
 
 Image copyright AP Image caption PM Donald Tusk said if "the crisis in confidence" continues there would have to be a snap election 
 
 Mr Tusk backed both men on Monday and said the leaked recordings were "an attempt at a coup d'etat, bringing down the Polish government by illegal means". 
 
 A prosecutor, accompanied by state security agents, raided the magazine's offices overnight on Wednesday and its editor said "physical force" had been used in an attempt to seize his laptop. 
 
 Justice Minister Marek Biernacki said the prosecutors' actions could be considered as "too far-reaching" and raise "legitimate concerns about breaching of journalistic confidentiality". 
 
 Michal Krolikowski, the Justice Ministry's undersecretary of state, added to the criticism, saying there had been "several legal deficiencies and some errors" in the operation. 
 
 The emergence of the tapes and the government's handling of the situation has put Mr Tusk under severe pressure. 
 
 On Thursday he said "the only solution" would be a snap election if "the crisis in confidence" continued. 
 
 Mr Tusk and his centre-right coalition won a second term in office at the October 2011 parliamentary election. ||||| In an episode that was also highly embarrassing to Mr. Tusk’s government, prosecutors raided the offices of Wprost last week and tried to seize the editor in chief’s laptop. The subsequent siege was broadcast on live television, and security agents were forced to leave empty-handed, though the newspaper later turned over copies of the taped conversations to the authorities. 
 
 “I am especially concerned about the lack of clarity as to who did the recordings,” said Andrew Michta, a professor of international studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, who has extensive experience in Central and Eastern Europe. “And also why they surfaced now, at a time of significant shifts in regional security, when Poland is making key decisions on defense, military modernization and working to increase U.S. and NATO military presence in the country.” 
 
 Rumors have been flying in Warsaw about who might be behind the electronic eavesdropping, which appears to have been underway for more than a year. Potential suspects include political enemies, disgruntled security operatives or Russian agents releasing the tapes now in reaction to Poland’s hard-line on Ukraine. 
 
 At first, Wprost would not say how it had obtained the recordings, but on Sunday it said that the tapes had been provided by a “businessman.” 
 
 Aleksander Smolar, the president of the Stefan Batory Foundation, which advocates for open government and civic issues, said the timing of the conversation was critical to understanding the comments in it. 
 
 While still maintaining a strongly pro-American position, Poland’s top officials had worried in recent years about the United States’ interest in deepening its commitment to regional security. But Russia’s annexation of Crimea turned that attitude around, Mr. Smolar said, as shown by President Obama’s warm reception in Warsaw this month. 
 
 Mr. Sikorski’s comments, if they are accurately depicted in the excerpt, were a reflection of that earlier frustration, Mr. Smolar said.
– A man who sounds a lot like Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski doesn't mince words about his feelings toward the US—and his fellow Poles—in a boozy, secretly recorded backroom chat obtained by Polish magazine Wprost. The man the magazine identifies as Sikorski says the "Polish-American alliance isn't worth anything. It is even harmful because it creates a false sense of security," the AP reports. We are "suckers, total suckers," the man continues. "The problem in Poland is that we have shallow pride and low self-esteem." The magazine shook Polish politics last week with the release of a recording of the country's interior minister and the chief of the central bank discussing how the bank could help the governing party win elections this year. The new recording—apparently made before the Ukraine crisis—drags the scandal into foreign policy at a critical time and the magazine says it will release full transcripts today, reports the New York Times. The magazine, which says the recordings were obtained from a businessman, was raided last week by prosecutors who tried to seize the editor-in-chief's laptop. The government later admitted there had been "legal deficiencies" and the raid should never have happened, the BBC reports.