POLAND:Czech playwright Vaclav Havel has suggested that democracy in Poland is in such danger that international observers should monitor the snap general election likely to be held in October.
The remark by the former Czech president during the promotion of a new book in Warsaw caused uproar in the camp of Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and prompted Havel to claim that he had meant the comments humorously.
"I feel that it would be in the interests of all Polish citizens if international observers were to be invited to the elections," he said after the book launch to Poland's PAP news agency. "I have the impression that free elections should be conducted [ in Poland] as soon as possible."
Nerves are tense in Warsaw, where the parliament and government headed by Mr Kaczynski's Law and Justice (PiS) party is likely to be dissolved at the end of the week.
PiS senator Zbigniew Romaszewski dismissed the remarks.
"I regret [ them] as I know Havel a bit and have always held him in high esteem," he said.
Former Polish president Lech Walesa, one-time leader of the Solidarity trade union and a sworn enemy of Mr Kaczynski, said: "I think we can manage our affairs without [ Havel's] advice. There is no threat here of what goes on in the Third World or in dictatorships."
Meanwhile, Poland's most influential cardinal and former private secretary of pope John Paul II has warned Polish bishops to rein in the radical Radio Maryja station and its notorious mixture of prayers, politics and anti-Semitic, anti-gay broadcasts.
Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Archbishop of Krakow, warned in a speech that new management was urgently needed at the station to counteract the "threat that the church in Poland is being identified solely with the position of Radio Maryja".
"Pastoral work is gradually slipping out of bishops' control and into the hands of others," he said. "We cannot ignore what is happening and await what will come next."
The radio station and its sister Trwam television station are run by Fr Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Redemptorist monk beyond the direct control of the bishops. The Polish episcopate is deeply divided along conservative/liberal lines on how - or even if - to act: while many find the tone of the broadcasts offensive, others quietly support their fundamentalist tone.
Fr Rydzyk is likely to openly back the prime minister and his brother, Polish president Lech Kaczynski, in any upcoming election, as he did in 2005, bringing an estimated million voters into their political camp. The alliance has held up despite the leaking of tapes on which Fr Rydzyk said Lech Kaczynski was in the pockets of the "Jewish lobby" and his wife was a "witch" for backing limited abortion.
Justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, a close ally of the Kaczynskis, said: "Fr Rydzyk and his media are doing a lot of good for the Polish people."
A poll yesterday showed PiS pulling ahead for the first time in months with 30 per cent support.