Prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński has said that if his Law and Justice (PiS) party win the parliamentary election on October 21, they would push for amendments to the constitution necessary to reform Poland.

On Polish Radio today he said that PiS had already prepared a new draft of the constitution, but because he was aware that the nation might not be ready to embrace it, instead PiS would propose amendments to the current one.

The changes would address excessive advantages enjoyed by some professional associations, as well as improve regulations on legislation and social benefits. Kaczyński admitted he counted on co-operation of the conservative MPs within the Civic Platform (PO) in this respect.

The prime minister repeated that he would face opposition leader Donald Tusk (PO) in a TV debate if Tusk clearly renounced a future coalition between PO and the Left and Democrats (LiD).

He said that if Tusk wanted to form a coalition with LiD, he would in fact lend credibility to the “face of the [post-communist] 3rd Republic – [ex-president] Aleksander Kwaśniewski”, the man leading the Left and Democratic’s campaign.

In Kaczyński’s assessment, he was the winner of the Monday debate even though opinion polls pointed to Kwaśniewski’s victory.

On the subject of the Ukrainian election results, Kaczyński said he was glad at the prospects of Julia Tymochenko forming a new government, as that would mean that the orange revolution had ultimately won.

Jarosław Kaczyński criticised the Polish doctors who decided to terminate their employment hospitals as a sign of protest and said their action was legal but professionally unethical.

He declared that the government would spend additional 11 billion zlotys on pay rises in the medical sector next year.