Poll puts Polish opposition ahead after TV debate

By Karolina Slowikowska

WARSAW (Reuters) - A week before an election, Poland's main opposition party, the centre-right Civic Platform, moved ahead in an opinion poll on Saturday, the first since its leader beat Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a televised debate.

Friday night's debate between Civic Platform (PO) leader Donald Tusk and Kaczynski appeared to have marked a turning point in the campaign, political commentators said.

The European Union's biggest ex-communist member is heading for an early parliamentary election on October 21, and the two largest parties, the PO and the ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS), had been neck-and-neck in opinion polls.

The latest poll, conducted for TVN's Fakty by pollster SMG/KRC on a sample of 1,500 Poles after the TV debate showed support for the PO at 39 percent against 29 percent for PiS.

The poll showed two other parties would make the parliament, the centre-left Left and Democrats (LiD) and the Polish Peasants' Party (PSL).

Tusk said during the debate that the Civic Platform, if it took power away from the conservatives, would push for a coalition with the PSL.

Analysts had billed the debate between Tusk and Kaczynski as a "clash of gladiators" as the two men fight to lead the next government in the ex-communist nation of 38 million.

Kaczynski, a tough-talking anti-corruption crusader, was a favorite but was nervous during the one-hour televised debate and at a loss to show the achievements of his government despite a booming economy.