Fifty four days to go before presidential elections in Poland, and the political truce noted in the wake of the death of President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 in the Smolensk plane crash, is well and truly over.

Civic Platform’s Stefan Niesiołowski has predicted the election campaign will be aggressive and confrontational, and not the civil exchange of views that some were hoping for. “Law and Justice pretend they are patriots and they want to get Poland out of the hands of non-patriots,” he told Polskie Radio.

The choice of Lech Kaczynski’s twin brother, Jaroslaw as Law and Justice candidate will keep the recent tragedy centre stage in the elections, think their opponents.

Former Prime Minister from the Democratic Left Alliance,  Leszek Miller, also believes emotions will be running high. He predicts that the Smolensk crash will become an election issue, and positive policies for the future.

“When coffins are used in an election campaign it can only be about emotion. Poles will have to go through this. There won’t be anything about policy or platforms, only emotions…”.

Law and Justice’s Mariusz Kamiński denies his party will conduct a negative campaign or play on sympathies related to the Smolensk tragedy: “It will be a different campaign than Poland has known in the past 20 years, I have no doubt. It will be a debate about people, characters and opinions but it won’t be dirty“.  

Twenty two candidates have formally filed the required 1,000 signatures of support to run for the presidency. They now have until May 26 to collect a further 100,000 signatures. The first round of elections will be on June 20, and should no candidate receive the required 50 percent plus of the national vote then a second round between the two top candidates will take place on July 4. (ek/pg)