Polish leader appears to win 2d term

WARSAW - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk appeared to clinch a second term in office for his centrist, pro-European Civic Platform party in parliamentary elections yesterday, a historic first in the country’s post-communist era.

One exit poll gave Tusk’s party nearly 40 percent support, well ahead of its main challenger, the conservative Law and Justice party of Jaroslaw Kaczynski. The poll, by the TNS OBOP institute, showed Kaczynski’s party winning 30 percent of the votes.

Tusk’s apparent victory comes after he has presided over four years of impressive economic growth. The country managed to keep growing even in 2009, when the rest of the European Union fell into recession, a feat attributed to an inflow of EU funds and a large domestic market of 38 million that maintained an appetite for consumption. The country has also seen a boom in construction in its major cities, thanks to preparations to cohost the Euro 2012 football championship next year.