President Lech Kaczynski has issued a last minute invitation to Prime Minister Donald Tusk to attend the economic crisis summit at the Presidential Palace today, involving trade unions, local governments and economists.

Donald Tusk said he will turn a blind eye to the lack of etiquette  - President Kaczynski issued the invitation via a press conference - and come to the meeting because its topic, the state of the Polish economy, is too important not to.  

The situation between the two politicians is tense once again after President Lech Kaczynski criticized the government’s eagerness to get Poland into ERM-2 and the euro zone as quickly as possible. President Kaczynski is presenting himself, this week, as the man who has the real plan to stave off the worst effects of the financial crisis and not the government.

The Prime Minister declared that he intends to inform President Kaczynski today that in Poland it’s the government who is responsible for economic policy, not the head of state.

President Kaczynski wanted to fly with Prime Minister Tusk to the EU emergency summit on March 1 to Brussels in order to discuss common strategy in the struggle against the economic crisis and particularly the growing protectionism of some governments within the EU. The joint flight, however, will be impossible as Donald Tusk is to go Brussels earlier for a meeting with leaders from the Visegrad Group - Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary plus Poland. (pg/jm)