The US has its political power families: the Kennedys, the Clintons, the Bushes. But nothing quite like what is developing in Poland.

Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, was punched and sprayed with what appeared to be pepper spray by an unidentified man in Warsaw, but escaped without injuries from what police said may have been an anti-Semitic attack.

Poland’s president today assured the Israeli ambassador that anti-Semitism has “no chance” in Poland, responding to Jewish anxieties over a new coalition that includes a nationalist party with a far-right youth wing, the presidential office said.

Politicians from the left and right today criticised new Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz’s decision to extend Poland’s military mission in Iraq.

The Polish parliament today rejected a motion calling for the immediate resignation of Prime Minister Marek Belka, who said this week that he would leave office in early May.

Frustrated Polish voters handed power to a reformed party of ex-communists in parliamentary elections and sent the once-mighty Solidarity bloc into political oblivion, exit polls showed.