Leaders of the right-wing Law and Justice, and the center-right Civic Platform speak out at party conventions in southern Poland.

“Poland is facing a great opportunity,” said Prime Minister Donald Tusk at yesterday’s party convention of the center-right Civic Platform in Katowice, southern Poland, ahead of the elections for the European Parliament due on 4 June. Mr. Tusk paid special attention to the candidacy of former prime minister and current member of the EP Jerzy Buzek, the party’s top candidate in the Silesian region.

The prime minister has said Poland stands a bigger chance to pull through the crisis: “We have come to understand that irresponsibility, greed, dishonesty, disregard for principles are the underlying causes of the crisis. Here in Silesia people know that you should spend no more than the money one earns, that you should secure the future of your children, and that you should stock reserves in good times.”

Meanwhile, the rightist Law and Justice called for firm action counteracting the ongoing economic slowdown at its convention in Kielce, southern Poland. Head of the party, Jarosław Kaczyński has said preventing the growth of the unemployment rate should be one of the ruling administration’s top priorities. Under the slogan ‘More for Poland’, the Law and Justice aims to fight for a Europe of equal chances and to strengthen Poland’s position in the EU’s political arena. Mr. Kaczyński has added his party would struggle for a unanimous Europe, alongside conservative groups in the European Parliament, such as the Czech Civic Democratic Party, with whom it intends to form a new party in the EP.