Election 2011 – Opposition in peasant jibe gaffe
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
29.08.2011 14:26
With five weeks to go before Poland's general election, leading opposition party, Law and Justice (PiS) has been accused of insulting part of its electoral base after its chief spin-doctor made some disparaging remarks about “peasants.”
Adam Hofman, chief spokesman for the conservative Law and Justice party, made the comments concerning a promotional video of the current junior coalition partner, the Polish Peasant's Party (PSL).
The PSL video shows party members dancing, in what appears to be a bid to attract a more youthful electorate ahead of the 9 October elections.
“With PSL, the situation is that these peasants left their little towns and the countryside, and made it to Warsaw,” Law and Justice's Hofman reflected in an interview with television station TVN 24.
“They became savage, and got dumb-founded, then they dance, sing and vote for such laws... as civil partnerships,” mused the conservative MP.
“The peasants left the countryside and went bonkers,” he concluded.
The apparent disdain for country folk made dizzy by the bright lights of the city by Law and Justice, a party which relies on a sizeable proportion of its vote from rural areas, sparked swift criticism from other parties.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the remarks as “a scandal,” while on the campaign trail over the weekend.
“I had hoped that this feeling that the city is so much more important than the countryside had vanished long ago,” Tusk said. (pg/nh)