Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski reacted to the latest election TV debate between the two main opposition parties by claiming that ex-president Aleksander Kwasniewski of the Left and Democrats won – but a telephone poll for Polish Radio finds that Donald Tusk from Civic Platform came out best.

Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński told TVN television on Monday night that ex-president Aleksander Kwaśniewski (Left and Democrats - LiD) dealt quite a few mighty blows to Civic Platform (PO) leader Donald Tusk in a TV debate.

In Kaczyński’s opinion, the heftiest blow of all was “the exposing of Tusk’s lie about the program of privatisation of hospitals”.

The second most powerful one was the ex-president’s question about the taxation system in Ireland. Kaczyński pointed out that Tusk, who had been making many references to that country in his election campaign, did not have the right answer and added that the taxes in Ireland were higher than in Poland.

While both Donald Tusk and Aleksander Kwaśniewski ensured during the debate that there would not be a coalition between PO-LiD, Jarosław Kaczyński said he did not believe that and called the debate between the two "a family squabble".

Telephone poll
Yet a telephone poll commissioned by the Polish Radio after the debate pointed to Donald Tusk as the winner.

36.3 per cent respondents said Tusk, 26.4 per cent said the ex-president was the winner, 25.9 per cent were of the opinion that the debate ended in w draw, and 11.4 per cent had no opinion on the subject.

The Civic Platform leader mainly gained the votes of people aged between 18 and 24, whereas the former president had a better following among respondents aged 40 and more.

Donald Tusk is also the preferred candidate to take over power in Poland among people with a university degree and those living in big towns and cities, while Aleksander Kwaśniewski is more popular among those without any academic background and living in towns of less that 50 thousand people.