Piotr Gliński, the Minister for Culture and National Heritage, has challenged Donald Tusk, former Prime Minister and former President of the European Council to a debate as part of the campaigns for the upcoming general elections in Poland.
Gliński said that "Debate is at the heart of democracy" but said that it is hard to accept debate in a hostile political environment like Poland's. He went on to blame Donald Tusk as an example of someone contributing to the level of "hate" and "negative emotions" in public life.
Gliński and Tusk will both be running to represent Warsaw in the autumn general elections.
However, the remarks come against the backdrop of Tusk's repeated calls for a debate between the leaders of the two largest parties - Jarosław Kaczyński and Donald Tusk.
Debates are a sensitive issue in Poland where election debates have been decisive. One daily has described the 2007 debate between Tusk and Kaczyński as a "trauma" for Kaczyński (whose party went on to lose the general election that year.)
The 1995 debate between incumbent Lech Wałęsa and post-communist Aleksander Kwaśniewski is widely considered to have cost Wałęsa dearly in the presidential race.
Bronisław Komorowski turned down an invitation to a debate in the 2015 presidential elections - which he went on to lose to Andrzej Duda.
Sources: PAP, NaTemat, Super Express
pt
