Church-backed party takes lead

Poland: Claiming the support of Solidarity and the Catholic Church and wielding the campaign weapons of Germany's Gerhard Schröder, Poland's conservative Law and Justice party has edged ahead of its more business-friendly rival in pre-election polls.

A survey for the Fakt newspaper placed Law and Justice (PiS) 2 per cent ahead of the erstwhile frontrunner, Civic Platform (PO), after its leaders apparently mimicked Mr Schröder's attacks on his rival Angela Merkel before last week's German election.

Attacking PO's plans for a flat tax rate and "arrogant" assumption of victory in Sunday's ballot, PiS seemed to use the chancellor's armoury to spark a comeback only slightly less spectacular than his own.

"It's hard to believe that the party which led in opinion polls for such a long time, and was believed by everyone to be the party of power, was so totally unprepared to govern," said PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, waving a copy of PO's manifesto.

Despite agreeing to form a coalition with PO, the leaders of the deeply conservative PiS, twins Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski, have lambasted their rival's claim to represent both big business and the poor.

"Tax breaks for the better off will be paid for by the poorer part of society, which will bring us closer to a Third World model," said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, a candidate for prime minister.

"We will not agree to that because it clearly hurts the vast majority - it is immoral, ineffective economically and dangerous politically."

With the ruling left in disarray, analysts say the Kaczynskis are making a shrewd advance to voters who worry about more economic liberalisation in a country already grappling with 18 per cent unemployment and large disparities of wealth.

A former activist in the pro-democracy Solidarity movement which helped undermine Polish communism, presidential candidate Lech Kaczynski has even resorted to courting die-hard left-wingers with nostalgia for life in the Soviet bloc. "I am not an enemy of the those who were once in the communist party, as some claim," he said.

"If I become president I will look after all citizens." Many Poles found that hard to swallow.

As mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski (56) has won a reputation as a right-wing disciplinarian, strong on traditional Catholic values, tough on crime and intolerant of many things, including a gay parade that he banned from the city's streets this summer.

Like Fianna Fáil, the PiS is part of the Union for a Europe of Nations bloc in the European Parliament, a grouping of mostly nationalist and Eurosceptic parties: the Kaczynskis oppose a federal Europe and are wary of swift adoption of the euro. That prompted many foreign and Polish financiers to hope for a PO win on Sunday, a result that seemed likely until the country's most influential institution backed Law and Justice.

"Let us make a wise choice," said Bishop Jozef Zawitkowski during a Mass on state radio and television. "Let law mean law and justice mean justice."

As the two parties both claimed to be the true heir of Solidarity, the endorsement of the Catholic Church put a seal of credibility on PiS. In the year Poland marked 25 years since the first Solidarity strikes and mourned the death of the pope who inspired them, the Kaczynskis could not have more powerful allies.