Poland’s PiS party puts country at loggerheads with Germany as poll looms

Ruling party portrays opposition leader Donald Tusk as subservient to Berlin in run-up to 15 October election

As campaign videos go, it's arguably one of the less sophisticated. To the booming soundtrack of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, a man with a strong foreign accent makes a phone call from the German embassy in Warsaw. His request: to arrange a call between Germany's chancellor and Jarosaw Kaczyski, the leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS).

Asked if he would like to speak with Olaf Scholz about Poland's retirement age, raised under Donald Tusk, Poland's former prime minister and the current opposition leader, Kaczyski refuses. Tusk has gone; these customs have changed," he says, and hangs up. An economically resurgent Poland, implies the video, will not dance to Berlin's tune, all thanks to the firm nationalist leadership of the PiS.