The majority of respondents (53 per cent) to a telephone poll conducted by GfK Polonia after the debate last night between PM Jarosław Kaczyński and former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski are of the opinion that the ex president was the winner.

In the eyes of 47 per cent the victory went to the current prime minister.

The one-hour debate, broadcast on Polish Radio 1, was divided into three parts focusing on economy, foreign policy and internal affairs respectively.

According to Jan Repa, BBC Europe analyst, the part of the debate on foreign policy “was full of recrimination, backward looking, focused on the form and lacked answers to some important issues”.

Repa wonders why Kwaśniewski did not grill the PM on the issue of Poland’s accession to the Euro zone when the latter touched upon the question of income tax cuts.

Kaczyński, on the other hand, did not take the opportunity to enquire about Kwaśniewski’s attitude toward the EU constitution.

In the opinion of former president Lech Wałęsa, Kaczyński should not have agreed to a debate with Kwaśniewski at all.

“Kaczyński was trying to help Kwaśniewski. I call that ‘supporting the left leg’, which is unnecessary. Instead, he should have faced Tusk (PO) to give the right side a chance to show their wisdom, so that was a very bad move”, Wałęsa told TOK FM radio.

Sociologist Paweł Śpiewak also said that a true debate should have included the opposition leader Donald Tusk of the Civic Platform.

“That would have been a genuine political debate, [...] because they are the three leaders of the three main powers on the political scene”, the sociologist told Polish Radio 3.

Śpiewak believes the debate was “a prearranged match without any goals; hard play, but the result was a setup”. He said that although the duel was fairly civilized, instead of brutal, it did not shed any new light on the current shape politics.

The election will take place on October 21.