Poland not mad, just even

PARIS - Poland could have taken offence when French critics of the proposed European constitution, fearing a flood of migrant workers from eastern Europe, made the "Polish plumber" their public enemy number one.

Instead, the Polish tourism authority has turned the cliche on its head, making a sexy plumber the centrepiece of a campaign to lure French tourists to the country.

"I'm staying in Poland. Come, one and all," reads the caption on a promotional poster featuring a 21-year-old "plumber", Piotr Adamski, who grips tools and pipes while gazing alluringly at the camera.

French opponents of the EU charter made the Polish plumber a symbol of low-wage workers from eastern and central Europe who they said would soon flood the job market and take work from French plumbers. The unemployment rate in France stands at over 10 per cent and polls show that high unemployment is the biggest concern among French voters.

It was Andrzej Kozlowski, head of the Polish Tourist Organisation, who had the brainwave of turning the "Polish plumber" into a positive symbol.

Adamski visited Paris yesterday to promote the campaign.

Pierre Lequiller, a member of the French parliament, welcomed the advertising campaign as an unusual way to promote Poland in response to an "aggressive electoral campaign against Poland".

Lequiller said the "No" campaign against the EU constitution, which French voters rejected on May 29, was xenophobic and anti-Polish. He said the "Polish plumber" campaign was "funny and serious at the same time".

- REUTERS