Ruling party to launch campaign against arch-rival
Law and Justice (PiS), Poland's ruling conservative party, is launching a campaign against Donald Tusk, the leader of the centrist Civic Platform (PO), their main opponent, the PiS spokesman has said.
The campaign starts on Friday, Rafal Bochenek told PAP.
PO leader Tusk has for years been the arch-enemy of PiS chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski. In the past, Kaczynski has accused Tusk of "covering up" alleged Russian involvement in the fatal 2010 plane crash that killed Kaczynski's twin brother, the then Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, when his rival was prime minister.
PiS is determined to win a third four-year term in power this autumn, but PO's support levels, although weaker than its rival's, could still derail PiS's plans to form an independent government.
"On Friday, PiS politicians will launch a nationwide campaign in (Poland's) regions under the hashtag '#SprawdzamyTuska' ('we verify Tusk' - PAP)," Bochenek said. "It will be a series of conferences which will take place in each constituency in the coming days, during which PiS parliamentarians will remind people how the Platform and opposition politicians behaved when decisions on key reforms for millions of Poles were being made."
He said the verification will concern votes cast for such bills as the 500 Plus child benefit, raising the tax-free allowance, and lowering personal income tax.
"They did everything, including parliamentary obstruction, so that the bills would not be passed," Bochenek said. "They permanently prophesised a budget disaster, they scared Poles, but none of those grim forecasts have come true, they have all proved to be pure lies."
