Polish election foes go head-to-head over Iraq

[Marcus Marulus]

Polish election foes go head-to-head over Iraq

Fri Oct 12, 2007

WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's main opposition leader went on the offensive Friday over the country's presence in Iraq, during a head-to-head TV debate with Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski 10 days ahead of elections.



"What gives you the right, you and your brother (President Lech Kaczynski) to extend the mission in Iraq ... to put the lives of Polish soldiers at risk?" said Donald Tusk, head of the liberal Civic Platform (PO).

Poland has been one of the closest allies of US President George W. Bush over Iraq, with Polish troops taking part in the 2003 invasion and around 900 soldiers still present 200 kilometres (120 miles) southeast of Baghdad.

Twenty-one Polish soldiers have been killed in Iraq since 2003. On October 3 Poland's ambassador to Iraq Edward Pietrzyk narrowly escaped a roadside bombing that killed his bodyguard-driver.

Tusk, whose party is running neck-and-neck with the Kaczynski twin's conservative Law and Justice party (PiS) party in polls ahead of the October 21 election, said Poland had not benefitted from the engagement.

Kaczynski defended Poland's close ties to Washington and said Poles "have never been deserters or cowards."

Poland "needs the alliance" with the United States, "the only country able to come to our aid in the difficult situations there have been in history," he said.

Tusk came out better in the debate, according to a survey conducted by polling institute GfK immediately afterwards, with 67 percent of viewers saying he was the winner against 33 percent for Kaczynski.

It was the second TV debate of the election campaign after Kaczynski faced off against former Polish president Aleksander Kwasniewski, head of the centre-left LiD opposition alliance, earlier this month.

Poland called new legislative elections after the collapse of the Jaroslaw Kaczynski's fractious coalition with a far-right party and a rural populist movement two months ago.

[source]