Presidential race turns nasty as Poles asked to remember the war

POLAND: Poland's presidential election has turned nasty in its final week after opponents of front-runner Donald Tusk released information showing that his grandfather served in the German Wehrmacht.

Mr Tusk said he had no idea of his grandfather's past and said it was "despicable" that the campaign manager of Lech Kaczynski, the conservative presidential candidate in second place, had leaked the information to the press.

"Poland does not need rulers who would divide Poles into the good and the bad depending on the ideology or the past of their grandfathers," said Mr Tusk, leader of the liberal Civic Platform (PO) party.

Mr Kaczynski has fired his campaign manager, Jacek Kurski, who made the original allegation about Mr Tusk's grandfather.

But Mr Tusk was forced to retract his original denial of the allegation after Polish television found documents showing that Mr Tusk's grandfather had served briefly in the Wehrmacht.

Like many Polish men he may have been forced to enlist and escaped to western Europe to join the Polish army in late 1944.

Mr Tusk won last Sunday's first round election and has a 14-point lead over Mr Kaczynski.This poll was taken before the revelations of possible collaboration with the Germans, however, which could have negative consequences for the Tusk campaign.

"For all my life I was convinced that I knew every detail of my family's life. Now I feel sorrow," he said, describing the revelations as a "great personal test". Mr Tusk's PO and the Law and Justice Party of Mr Kaczynski are now in coalition talks.