Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz. photo - east newsLeftist former prime minister
Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz is to give his support in the first round of the presidential elections on Sunday to centre-right candidate Bronislaw Komorowski, as part of a strategy to attract left-leaning voters.
The announcement is to be made at a joint press conference today, two independent sources have told the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper.
The sources say that Cimoszewicz - prime minister of Poland in 1996/7 in the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) led government - thinks the best way to stop the election of Law and Justice’s Jaroslaw Kaczynski is not to put his support by SLD candidate Grzegorz Napieralski (way back in the opinion polls in third place) but to put his weight behind Komorowski (Civic Platform).
Komorowski, however, told Polish Radio today that though he will be meeting Cimoszewicz, and that, “it would be nice to receive such support”, he was not sure what the result of the meeting will be.
For Komorowski, the strategy of attracting more left leaning voters has become all the more important in recent days as Kaczynski draws close to the Civic Platform candidate in opinion polls (see our election web page poll tracker).
Last week Komorowski nominated another former SLD prime minister, Marek Belka, to be president of the National bank of Poland as part of the same strategy, say observers.
Komorowski has also tried to secure the support of yet another prominent left wing politician, Aleksander Kwasniewski - who says he will support Napieralski in the first round but will get behind Komorowski of a second round is needed on July 4 if no candidate secures an overall majority. (pg)
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