POLAND: Polish Prime Ministe Jaroslaw Kaczynski stumbles in key TV debate with election rival

The battle for top spot in the pre election polls reached new levels in a televised debate between Poland's ruling party's leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his main rival and leader of the opposition, Donald Tusk. Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski appeared to have lost a face-to-face debate with his main rival Donald Tusk on Friday (October 12) in a looming parliamentary election, a blow to his bid to remain in power. Kaczynski's conservative Law and Justice party is running neck-and-neck with pro-business Civic Platform led by liberal Donald Tusk in the run-up to the Oct. 21 poll, with other parties trailing far behind. Kaczynski, a tough-talking anti-corruption crusader, was a favourite but was nervous during the one-hour televised debate and at a loss to demonstrate the achievements of his government despite a booming economy. Tusk, who had complained state media favour Law and Justice, took advantage of the rare state television appearance to sell his party's liberal message while taking Kaczynski to task over unfulfilled promises and a combative foreign policy. A snap poll among 13,000 readers of a leading internet portal, gazeta.pl, showed 90 percent believed Tusk won. Analysts said Tusk defied his lacklustre image with a confident and relaxed manner, even as he pinned Kaczynski down on issue after issue. He accused Kaczynski of damaging Poland's relations with EU neighbour Germany and pushing millions of Poles abroad with social conservatism and a failure to pursue economic reform. "Today, after two years of your government our relations with Germany and Russia are the worst in sixteen years. This is mainly because of the drastic incompetence of your diplomacy. You ask: what kind of diplomacy should we have? Towards any country it should be professional," Tusk said. "When it comes to subordination towards a stronger partner, the government of Jaroslaw Kaczynski surprises by being subordinate towards a true imperial state, the United States." he added. Kaczynski denied relations with Germany had declined during his tenure in office, saying: "When it comes to relations with Germany, they are entirely fine. Today the president returned from Germany, he has been invited for further meetings on Polish-German relations. We have many contacts of this kind, I have met Chancellor Merkel three times over the year, my brother a few times and there were many phone conversations. We have normal relations in various fields." He later said his opponent would be soft on corruption and cater only to the rich, arguments that have dominated his party's campaign this time around and in the 2005 election when it marginally beat the Civic Platform. Tusk fought back, however, saying only further liberal reforms could lure back millions of young Poles who took advantage of EU membership to work abroad. A snap poll among 13,000 readers of a leading internet portal, gazeta.pl, showed 90 percent believed Tusk won. Warsaw resident Janusz Isasz said: "Unquestionably Donald Tusk wins, he is more specific. He throws concrete arguments at Kaczynski and Kaczynski is not able to respond. Whatever Kaczynski says is general and doesn't mean anything." But another warsaw resident, Marcin Wyszynski, said he would not vote for any of the main parties. "I think that there aren't any surprises so far," was his comment.

ITN Source | October 13, 2007

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