Grzegorz Schetyna voters' favourite to lead Civic Platform

Grzegorz Schetyna, favourite among the voters: photo - W. Kusiński/PR

Thirty two percent of respondents told the Millward Brown pollsters that they favoured Schetyna to take up leadership of the ruling Civic Platform, while 25 percent thought foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski should lead the party and country.

Speaker of parliament, Ewa Kopacz was in the third place on 17 percent, with defence minister Tomasz Siemoniak trailing in fourth on just 8 percent..

The poll was taken from a sample of 1001 by telephone on 2 September

A government spokeswoman said on Monday that a new PM will be chosen before the end of the month, following Donald Tusk being elected as president of the European Council in Brussels.

Tusk will take up the position from 1 December but must resign his job as PM beforehand, which, under the Polish constitution will involve dismissing the entire Cabinet and forming a new one with a new leader.

However government spokeswoman Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska said on Monday that Donald Tusk wanted to resolve several important issues before leaving for Brussels, including plans for the 2015 budget.

Tusk has also indicated that he will remain chairman of his Civic Platform party until December.

The head of the Civic Platform parliamentary caucus, Rafał Grupiński, announced that he wanted elections for a new party leader soon.

“I believe, that the so called transitional phase in the party, in the face of all these challenges which await us, should not be too long, because the party needs a strong leader with a democratic mandate,” he said. (pg/sl)