All apologies as PiS' mud won't stick

Amid signs that Poland's presidential campaign is turning increasingly nasty, Presidential candidate Lech Kaczyński of the Law and Justice (PiS) party fired a close aide last week for claiming that the grandfather of rival Donald Tusk had cooperated with the Nazis. Jacek Kurski, Kaczyński's campaign manager, told the Polish press that Tusk should clarify his grandfather's past and that "serious sources" had said he had volunteered to join the German Wehrmacht.

Tusk rejected the accusation, telling a campaign rally: "My rival and his associates have dealt a blow which was meant to hurt the most - they attacked the good name of my close relatives, who are no longer with us."

"This is a disgusting lie. Lech Kaczyński's campaign has descended into the gutter," Tusk spokesman Jacek Protasiewicz said. He distributed documents showing that both of Tusk's grandfathers were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps after the war broke out.

In a presidential debate later on Tuesday, Kaczyński apologized for his aide's accusations. "Today I must apologise to Donald Tusk for the elements of black PR in the campaign," he said. Kaczyński trailed Tusk, a member of Civic Platform (PO), by just over three percent in the first round of voting. The two will compete in a run-off on October 23.

The race has grown increasingly hostile as the final vote draws near, with both parties accusing their rivals of lies and mudslinging.

Kurski faces an intra-party disciplinary hearing for the accusations. (Reuters)