Hostility to Germany emerges before vote

POLAND: Anti-German rhetoric has overshadowed the final days of Poland's presidential election after Lech Kaczynski, running second in polls, said Germany posed a danger to Polish national interests.

His remark, seen as an attempt to win over older voters, came as the parliament, the Sejm, failed to election a parliamentary president after its first sitting yesterday.

"We need a president who is absolutely steadfast and not someone who, likely the other candidate, seeks compromises," said Mr Kaczynski of the socially conservative Law and Justice party (PiS).

His remarks were directed at his opponent, Donald Tusk of the economic liberal Civic Platform (PO), who has warned that Mr Kaczynski's hostility to Germany and Russia would isolate Poland in the future.

Mr Tusk has complained of mud-slinging after Mr Kaczynski's election team revealed last week that his grandfather had served in the Wehrmacht during the second World War.

Mr Tusk's grandfather was imprisoned by the Nazis and forcibly drafted but fled months later to join the Polish army. In the days since the revelation, however, Mr Tusk's lead has fallen from 12 to just eight points.

Mr Kaczynski, currently mayor of Warsaw, has cranked up his anti-German rhetoric in the last days, claiming that the Nazis caused damages worth at least €45 billion during the occupation and destruction of the Polish capital in the second World War.

Mr Kaczynski made the remarks while presenting a damage report he commissioned in May 2004 as reaction to compensation demands from Germans expelled from what is now Polish territory. "If Germany insists on rewriting history, if there are more demands for compensation then . . . we have a weapon to defend ourselves with this report," said Mr Kaczynski, denying the report's presentation was linked to his election campaign.

"There was no other city in occupied Europe which, like Warsaw, lost more than half its inhabitants and was more than 80 per cent destroyed. The Germans cannot be allowed to present themselves as the second victims of World WarTwo after the Jews."

Both presidential candidates have their roots in the Solidarity trade union movement that toppled the communist regime, though Mr Tusk appeals to the urban middle class while Mr Kaczynski's support is in rural, more traditional areas.

Sunday's second round run-off will be a tight race, particularly as several unsuccessful candidates from the first round have urged their supporters to vote for Mr Kaczynski, who plans to introduce a new constitution and create a presidential-style democracy along French lines and to fight corruption. A Transparency International report this week said Poland was the most corrupt state in the EU, with "little or no sign of improvement".

The mud-slinging could endanger ongoing coalition talks between the PO and PiS. If elected president, Mr Kaczynski would have a strong ally in a government headed by the PiS, led by his twin brother Jaroslaw.