POLAND: Poland's presidential election will be a bitter two-horse race after the left-wing parliamentary president Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz announced he would challenge right-wing populist Lech Kaczynski.
The surprise decision of Mr Cimoszewicz, the former foreign minister, could thwart the plans of Mr Kaczynski and his twin brother Jaroslaw to pull off a unique political coup and occupy simultaneously two of Poland's highest offices.
While Lech has his eye on the presidency, Jaroslaw is head of the conservative, anti-EU Law and Justice Party and a likely candidate to become prime minister after the autumn general election.
"I have decided to stand for the highest office in the republic out of a feeling of citizen's duty," said Mr Cimoszewicz in Warsaw University yesterday, to thunderous applause.
The decision took most Poles by surprise, as Mr Cimoszewicz had already ruled himself out of the presidential race.
But he said he felt compelled to reconsider after receiving "countless requests" from Poles horrified at the thought of the popular presidential vote being won by Mr Kaczynski, who made headlines recently for homophobic remarks and for refusing to permit the recent Warsaw gay pride parade for the second consecutive year.
He may also have been convinced to change his mind by a poll last week giving him 27 per cent popular support, nine points ahead of Mr Kaczynski, even though he was no longer officially in the race.
Mr Cimoszewicz is more likely to be seen by voters as the natural successor to outgoing president Aleksander Kwasniewski after it emerged yesterday that his campaign will be managed by the president's wife, Jolanta.
Mr Cimoszewicz has the backing of Poland's ruling left-wing Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), the reformed communist party almost certain to be dumped from office in the September general election and replaced by a right-wing or centre-right coalition.
SLD leaders now see in Mr Cimoszewicz a chance for the left to at least hang on to the presidency.
"Mr Cimoszewicz will be attacked for being a minister in the most unpopular government in recent history. But it may increase his chances of winning because for the first time there will be a checks and balances perspective in Polish politics," said Robert Sobiech, political scientist at Warsaw University.
However, he faces two formidable foes in the Kaczynski brothers, household names in Poland since they starred as children in the classic Polish film The Two Who Stole The Moon.
The two brothers, who turned 56 earlier this month, have attracted huge support by promising to oust the scandal-tainted SLD from power and bring about a "moral renewal" in Poland.
"It's a very strange campaign so far, focusing just on this moral renewal topic," said Dr Sobiech. But the brothers' anti-EU rhetoric is sure to emerge in the coming weeks.