With almost two months to go before presidential elections in Poland, politicians have warned the election campaign could become aggressive, Polish Radio said on Tuesday.
Civic Platform's Stefan Niesiolowski said the campaign would be confrontational, and not the civil exchange of views that some were hoping for.
"Law and Justice pretend they are patriots and they want to get Poland out of the hands of non-patriots," he said.
His view was echoed by former prime minister Leszek Miller, of the Democratic Leftist Alliance, who said passions would be running high.
He predicted that the air crash near west Russia's Smolensk on April 10, which killed President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, and 94 others, would become an election issue.
The choice of Lech Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw as Law and Justice candidate will keep the recent tragedy centerstage in the election campaign, their opponents say.
"When coffins are used in an election campaign it can only be about emotion. Poles will have to go through this. There won't be anything about policy or platforms, only emotions," Miller told Polish Radio.
Law and Justice's Mariusz Kaminski has denied his party will conduct a negative campaign or play on sympathies related to the Smolensk tragedy.
"It will be a different campaign than Poland has known in the past 20 years. It will be a debate about people, characters and opinions but it won't be dirty," he said.
Twenty two candidates have formally filed the required 1,000 signatures of support to run for the presidency. They now have until May 26 to collect a further 100,000 signatures.
The first round of elections will be on June 20, and if no candidate receives the required 50% plus of the national vote, a second round between the two top candidates will take place on July 4.
According to a recent survey, Poland's acting President Bronislaw Komorowski is the favorite to win in the Polish presidency June.
The survey conducted by Millward Brown SMG KRC center said Komorowski would get 47% of the vote in the first round of the election and 57% in the second.
WARSAW, April 27 (RIA Novosti)
