POLAND:An opinion poll lead and an impressive showing in a televised debate with prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski have boosted opposition leader Donald Tusk a week before Poland's general election.
Mr Tusk, the head of the liberal Civic Platform, was the surprise winner of a debate with the pugnacious Mr Kaczynski, chief of the Law and Justice party (PiS), whose most prominent supporter is his identical twin brother Lech, Poland's president.
Mr Tusk accused his rival of doing too little to boost the economy, of damaging Poland's relations with its neighbours, and of driving millions of Poles abroad by failing to deliver on social promises and championing a stifling moral conservatism.
"Where are the three million homes?" Mr Tusk asked a flustered Mr Kaczynski in reference to a PiS promise to build new houses for poorer Poles.
"There were supposed to be three million homes and what we've got are homes that cost three million," he quipped, in a performance that belied Mr Tusk's reputation as a poor communicator without the appetite for a political scrap.
"After two years of your government, we have the worst relations with Russia and Germany, which is a result of the incompetence of your diplomacy," Mr Tusk told his opponent, before lambasting him for his failure to push through economic reforms.
"Two million Poles chose a liberal economy in the two years that you have been in power," he said. "Unfortunately, it was in the UK, Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands."
Mr Kaczynski seemed taken aback by Mr Tusk's onslaught, but insisted that Poland's economy was booming, that relations with Berlin were fine, and that PiS was committed to fighting corruption and inequality.
"We want to build a patriotic Poland, a Poland in which values tied to our traditions, our nation, our church - for those who are believers - are going to be respected, to be the basis of our public life," he said.
Post-debate surveys and media reaction made Mr Tusk the clear winner of the tussle.
"Tusk won hands down. He dominated this debate and the prime minister did not retain the initiative for one moment," said political commentator Marek Migalski.
Analyst Aleksander Smolar said the debate showed that Tusk "who was considered until now a paper politician, can be an attacking player. He showed that he's a strong-willed man . . . and also came across as a more competent politician."
A poll after the debate gave Civic Platform 39 per cent support against 29 per cent for PiS. However, other polls have given PiS a slender lead, prompting analysts to predict an extremely close election next Sunday.