Kwaśniewski returns

Former President Aleksander Kwaśniewski has revealed more details of his impending return to the political scene. Last week he announced that the coalition of the left, encompassing the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Social-democracy of Poland (SdPL), the Labor Union (UP) and Demokraci.pl, "is the formation I would like to help." He hasn't declared what position he plans to hold in the coalition and didn't exclude playing the role of an advisor or consultant.

"We welcome this declaration," SdPL's Marek Borowski said. The leader of Demokraci.pl, Janusz Onyszkiewicz, described the ex-President's announcement as "important and of great value" to the coalition.

As expected, the ex-President's political rivals are playing down the comeback. "We are not worried by Kwaśniewski's return," Law and Justice's (PiS) party whip, Marek Kuchciński said.

Kwaśniewski's declaration isn't giving Civic Platform (PO), the largest opposition party, any sleepless nights either. The party's deputy leader Bronisław Komorowski thinks that the announcement will not cause much of a shakeup on the political scene.

The former President's declaration meets Poles' hopes for his return to the political sphere. A poll published last week by GfK Polonia shows that the Oleksy scandal didn't hurt Kwaśniewski's reputation, as 51 percent of Poles still see his return to politics either as "very good" or "good."

However, the left itself has not remained unharmed by the recent Oleksy scandal. A poll conducted by research company TNS OBP showed that the leftist coalition could count on just 10 percent of the votes.