Opposition loses first election campaign legal joust

Law and Justice must make apologise and give 10,000 zloty (2,500 euros) to charity.

The catalyst for the case was the slogan under which the Civic Platform (PO), the senior coalition partner, is running its campaign.

The centre-right party is drumming up support under the banner: “Poland is being built” (Polska jest w budowie).

However, conservative rival Law and Justice (PiS) responded at a press conference that Poland is not being built but, “Poland is in a mess” (Polska jest w balaganie), adding that some of the planned or current investments that the senior coalition partner was claiming credit for could be ascribed to the work of previous governments.

Politicians from Civic Platform called for “a public correction of the false information that was uttered during the press conference of Law and Justice chief of staff Tomasz Poreba and spokesman Adam Hofman.”

Law and Justice leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski was swift to assess the development.

“There is perhaps no more foolish idea than trying to conduct an election campaign in the law courts,” he contested.

“All that I can say about it is that it has provided me with a great deal of amusement,” he added.

Meanwhile, Hofman himself, who made the initial remark about Poland being “in a mess,” took a sarcastic line at a follow-up press conference.

Hofman said that he could indeed follow PO's wishes, by “never again saying that Poland is not changing,” because “Poland is changing – for the worse,” he argued. (nh/pg)