Poland's Komorowski wins first TV debate

Warsaw: The frontrunner in Poland's presidential race, Bronislaw Komorowski, won Sunday's TV debate with his right-wing rival but failed to reach out to voters beyond his core constituency, an opinion poll showed yesterday.

The centrist Komorowski, candidate of the ruling Civic Platform (PO), is facing a tight run-off against Jaroslaw Kaczynski, leader of the main opposition party Law and Justice (PiS), in a second, decisive round of voting on July 4.

The pair clashed in their first live debate on Sunday over foreign policy, in-vitro fertilisation, pension system reform and legalising relationships of same-sex couples.

A GfK Polonia survey published yesterday by the right-wing Rzeczpospolita daily showed 52 per cent believed Komorowski had triumphed against 28 per cent for Kaczynski.

Some 15 per cent said the debate ended in a tie, the telephone poll conducted among 1,000 Poles showed.

"Komorowski was more active, attacked Kaczynski more sharply," the Gazeta Wyborcza daily wrote in an editorial yesterday. "Kaczynski was more withdrawn, he spoke more slowly.

"It could be seen that he was trying above all to stay calm."

Kaczynski has toned down a combative, acerbic public image he acquired while prime minister in 2006-07 in order to win over middle-of-the-road voters during this election campaign.

Key support

Komorowski and Kaczynski need to lure leftist voters in Sunday's run-off after the candidate of the leftist opposition party won 14 per cent in the June 20 first round of voting.

Analysts say some leftist voters will back Komorowski due to their dislike of Kaczynski's nationalistic, eurosceptic brand of conservatism.

However, some say Kaczynski may gain the backing of some left-leaning voters as he favours more state spending.

"I think this debate won't impact the voters' support, everybody will stick to their current beliefs," Rzeczpospolita quoted political scientist Jaroslaw Flis as saying.

The election was triggered by the death of conservative President Lech Kaczynski, Jaroslaw's twin brother, in a plane crash in Russia on April 10.

Opinion polls have so far underestimated support for Jaroslaw Kaczynski. Komorowski won the first round of the election by five percentage points, less than predicted.

Newspapers picked up on a foreign policy "gaffe" made by Kaczynski during Sunday's debate when he said Warsaw should discuss its policy towards Belarus with Moscow.

This prompted Komorowski to accuse him of showing disrespect for Minsk's sovereignty and of ignoring basic rules of diplomacy.

In Poland, the government holds most power but the president has a say in foreign policy and security issues, appoints some state officials and can veto laws.

Financial markets would welcome a Komorowski win, expecting him to cooperate smoothly with the pro-business government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to tackle Poland's budget deficit and public debt and to prepare the country for euro adoption.