Donald Tusk, the former prime minister of Poland, has re-entered politics in that country in an attempt to shake things up.
Tusk served as prime minister from 2007 to 2014. He stepped down to serve as the President of the European Council, a position he held until 2019.
He comes back to revive the fortunes of the Civic Platform party which he founded in 2001. It emerged as the biggest single party in the 2007 and 2011 elections. Its fortunes have waned somewhat since Tusk’s departure. After winning around 40% of the vote in 2007 and 2011 it managed around a quarter of the vote in the two subsequent parliamentary elections. However, recent polls show it has the support of about 16% of Poles.
Tusk will attempt to unseat the governing Law and Justice party.
Said Tusk: ‘The evil that Law and Justice is doing is so evident, is so shameless, is so permanent, it happens in almost every matter. ‘Contempt for minorities, brutal, vulgar authoritarian tendencies, aversion to all types of freedom . . . Permanent attacks on the EU. That’s Putin’s agenda, one-to-one.’
However, Tusk will not have it all his own way. Rafal Trzaskowski, the mayor of the capital, Warsaw, who narrowly lost last year’s Polish presidential election, has said he is prepared to challenge Tusk for the party leadership, if internal elections are held.