Jaroslaw Kaczynski in court, Tuesday. Photo - east news

A Warsaw court is to rule at 12.00 CET today on a dispute between presidential candidates Bronilsaw Komorowski and Jaroslaw Kaczynski over whether the former wants to privatise Poland’s health service.

Bronislaw Komorowski (Civic Platform) accuses Kaczynski (Law and Justice) of lying when he claimed that the government wants to privatise health care in Poland.

The court hearing comes in the last week of the presidential election campaign and as Kaczynski has steadily drawn closer to Komorowski in opinion polls, though the Civic Platform candidate maintains a clear lead.

Bronislaw Komorowski, who demands a public correction from the Law and Justice’s candidate did not participate in the court’s hearing on Tuesday.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who was present, openly manifested his irritation at the fact that he had to stand before the court. “Instead of visiting Lomza [as part of his election campaign] where my family comes from, and where I spent a considerable part of my childhood, I have to wander the corridors of the court,” he complained to reporters.

The Law and Justice’s candidate does not intend to withdraw the claim he made during the general election campaign two years ago that Civic Platform plans, or planned, to privatise parts of the health service. “No one can deny that Civic Platform included in its program the privatization of hospitals. The subsequent bill on commercialization [of the health care system], in fact, related to that process, which in many cases lead to privatization,” said Kaczynski.

Kaczynski added that Civic Platform decided to take law and Justice to court for what it had previously voted for. “I hope that the truth will prevail,” said Kaczynski.

This is the second row between Civic Platform and the Law and Justice party over the privatization of health care which ended up in court. In 2007, the court ruled that Civic Platform was right claiming that since May 2007 (when it changed its program) it did not intend to privatize hospitals but to “communise” them to make local authorities responsible for them.

Both parties will have 24 hours to appeal today‘s decision. (mg/pg)