Election 2011 - PM tries to save face after Greenpeace storms stage

PM Tusk with Greenpeace protestor; photo - PAP/Tomasz Gzell

The Greenpeace activist leapt onto the platform brandishing a protest banner.

“We want clean energy.”, the message proclaimed.

Environmentalists are concerned that the government’s decision to go ahead with a nuclear power station programme, and the recent discovery of shale gas deposits in Poland, could harm both human health and the environment.

Agata Wlodarczyk from the Greenpeace environmentalist campaigning NGO – an organization which celebrated its 40th anniversary last week - struck at the party rally at the moment when the majority of Civic Platform 's leading figures were on stage.

The party, currently the senior partner in Poland's ruling coalition, hopes to be re-elected on 9 October.

The protest banner was seized by a member of Tusk's security team, but, seconds later, the prime minister called for it to be returned to the stage, and he held it up once again, before shaking hands with the protestor.

The activist revealed later that the action was part of a wider campaign to promote renewable energy. However, she admitted that it is rare that such interventions end in such a forgiving fashion.

“The prime minister conducted himself on a very high level,” Wlodarczyk said in an interview with television station TVN.

“I hope that he will behave in a similar manner in relation to our demands,” she added. (nh/pg)