With less than two weeks before the presidential elections on June 20, Polish broadcaster TVP has invited all the running candidates to take part in televised debates: officially, all the candidates are willing to take part.

The most important of the televised debates will be aired on Sunday, when four major candidates will battle it out in the TVP studios: Bronislaw Komorowski, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Grzegorz Napieralski and Waldemar Pawlak.

The Civic Platform (PO) candidate and acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, has criticised Adam Bielan from Law and Justice (PiS), after the latter is reported to have said that the two parties had to come to an agreement over the televised debates.

“I heard that Mr. Bielan said something along these lines, refering to a non-existent agreement between [PiS] and my election committee” Komorowski announced, adding that “[Bielan] is spreading misinformation. This is only a small lie, and not harmful, but it is bad [way] to start a common debate.”

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the PiS presidential hopeful vehemently denied the accusations on behalf of the party, retorting “Mr. Bielan said no such thing. What we have here is hesitation on the part of Mr. Komorowski.”

The Democratic Left Alliance’s (SLD) candidate, Grzegorz Napieralski has stated his readiness to take part in the debate. “It is good to have a debate between candidates from a parliamentary backdrop, […] as it will show what their true intentions are before the election,” Napieralski said on the campaign trail in Szczecin.

The Polish Peasant’s Party (PSL) front-runner Waldemar Pawlak is also willing to take part in the televised debate. “It is important that such a debate will result in consequences that will shape the the way in which the next president will run his office,” Pawlak said.

Other candidates have also expressed their willingness to take part in the debates.

On June 8, Andrzej Lepper, Kornel Morawiecki and Boguslaw Zietek will take to the television studios in Warsaw to argue their cases.

“I will take part in every debate, […] I’m not scared of them!,” the Self-Defence candidate Andrzej Lepper stated during a campaign meeting in Krakow.

Two days later, on June 10, Marek Jurek, Janusz Korwin-Mikke and Andrzej Olechowski are to take part in a debate. The latter is sceptical about debating with such a small group, however: “People have flown to the moon, I’m sure it is possible to hold an interesting debate with 10 people,” the independent candidate said. (jb)

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