Poles, asked who they perceive as their best leader, mentioned most often Lech Walesa and Donald Tusk and less often current president Lech Kaczynski and former president Aleksander Kwasniewski, according to an opinion poll conducted by the TNS OBOP.  

Asked who they perceive as their leader, Poles mentioned Lech Walesa (28 percent), Prime Minister Donald Tusk (24 percent), the President Lech Kaczynski (14 percent) and the former President Aleksander Kwasniewski (12 percent).

Respondents also chose Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the Law and Justice (PiS) head (6 percent), Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, the former Foreign Minister and Bronislaw Komorowski, the Parliament speaker (4 percent).

Leader of League of Polish Families Roman Giertych, the leader of the communist government during martial law Wojciech Jaruzelski, Andrzej Lepper, the Self Defence party leader, Jerzy Owsiak, the founder of a well-known charity organization, and Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski all received 2 percent approval.

Other names mentioned were Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz, the former Foreign Minister, Jolanta Kwasniewska, the former First Lady, Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the first Prime Minister in communist-free Poland, and Andrzej Olechowski, the founder of Civic Platform, all on one percent.

Poles also consider as leaders: John Paul II (48 percent), Jozef Pilsudski – the head of the country after WW I (31 percent) and Wladyslaw Sikorski – the head of Polish government-in-exile during WW II (8 percent) as being important leaders of Poland.   

Most respondents (74 percent) claim that the word “leader” is not synonymous to a “politician”. According to Poles, a leader should know how to communicate with people (44 percent) and have organizational skills (41 percent).  

The poll was conducted on 2 - 5 April among 1004 randomly chosen Poles over the age of fifteen. (mg/pg)