Jaroslaw Kaczynski; photo - PAP

Jaroslaw Kaczynski will probably not accept an invitation by President Bronislaw Komorowski for talks, Thursday, on how to end the increasingly ugly conflict between the two leading political parties in Poland.

“I do not think that this will happen, given the situation yesterday,” said leader of the Law and Justice (PiS) party in Parliament, Mariusz Blaszczak, referring to Tuesday’s murder of a political assistant at the Lodz party HQ by a 62 year-old taxi driver apparently with a grievance against Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said that he was deeply saddened by the attack at the Law and Justice office but that the event should not be used politically, and it was time to reduce tension in the country which has been building since the Smolensk air crash which killed President Lech Kaczynski, Jaroslaw’s twin brother, in April.

PM Tusk told the TOK FM radio station - after Kaczynski said that the head of government had to take “moral responsibility” for the murder of the political worker and the stabbing of another - that he “did not expect a balanced opinion from Jaroslaw Kaczynski on this matter”.

“This is very worrying,” Tusk continued, the leader of the Civic Platform-led government. “Some politicians in Poland react differently to how they do in the rest of the world [to tragic events]”, by laying political and moral blame against opponents.

What happened in Lodz, Tusk added, “was tragic but not apocalyptic”.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a press conference on Wednesday that the murder of one of his party workers was proof “that democracy in Poland is under serious threat”. The source of the threat was “the spreading of hatred against the opposition - against Law and Justice”.

Meanwhile, vice president of the Law and Justice party Adam Lipinski told the TVN 24 news station that workers at the Warsaw branch of the party recognised the alleged murderer in Lodz, Ryszard C. as he had previously been at the offices and got involved “in a brawl”. (pg)