DONALD TUSK:
A SAVIOR OF POLISH DEMOCRACY?
Donald Tusk’s return from Brussels was undoubtedly the most important political event in Poland in recent months. Time will tell if his experience and political charisma will make the opposition catch up with the ruling right wing and fight for victory in the next elections.
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fter six years spent in European institutions, the former long-time prime minister and founder of the now opposition Civic Platform returned to domestic politics, once again taking the position of leader of his mother party. The political significance of his comeback is best demonstrated by the unprecedented attack in the history of the Polish media by the public broadcaster TVP, which is under the full control of the ruling right wing. Since Tusk set foot on Polish soil, media analysts noted that the main news program Wiadomości (News) devoted up to 40 percent of its airtime to Tusk for several days. The materials about him were and still are exclusively critical; old, unsubstantiated accusations are reminded, new accusations are created day after day. Every statement of the former prime minister (Tusk held the position for the longest time among all heads of government after 1989) was and is subject to violent attacks. Right-wing critics of Tusk have been arguing for years that he is and always has been a consistent implementer of the policy that Berlin is trying to impose on Poland. Even before the PO leader finally lost the 2005 presidential election, none other than today’s TVP president Jacek Kurski, then an active Law and Justice (PiS) politician, accused Tusk that “his grandfather volunteered for the Wehrmacht during World War II”. In fact, Józef Tusk, a prisoner of the Stutthof concentration camp, was conscripted into the German army in 1944 as a citizen of the Third Reich, which he automatically became upon the annexation of the Free City of Gdańsk. Such attacks are still continuing today; the phrase “Fur Deutschland” which Tusk, fluent in German, used in his speech to the representatives of the German Christian Democrats is constantly repeated (out of context) on TVP. Just like the opinion that Tusk, a citizen of Gdańsk by birth, always emphasizing his roots, is in fact a puppet of Angela Merkel, aiming at German hegemony over the Polish neighbor. An avalanche of criticism from right-wing journalists 8
Autumn 2021
was also aimed at the former prime minister’s appeals for a humanitarian solution to the issue of refugees from Afghanistan and the Middle East, who have been living for weeks in a makeshift camp on the Polish-Belarusian border. Their small group of less than 30 people has been isolated by the Polish army, police and border guards, surrounded by barbed wire entanglements; despite efforts, no Polish humanitarian activists, doctors or opposition politicians have been allowed near them. Even people who were just trying to donate food, water or medicine to the needy. Tusk publicly called for a discussion on how to deal with the migrant crisis and appealed to the authorities to be more lenient. In response, he was accused of acting to scenarios written by Vladimir Putin or Alexander Lukashenko. The alleged cooperation with the former was already discussed in 2010, after the tragic crash of the Polish presidential airplane near Smolensk airport [President Lech Kaczynski with his wife and 94 other people, including many politicians, died then]; the right wing accused Tusk of hiding evidence of the alleged assassination by bomb put on the plane by the Russians. Does the ruling United Right actually have reason to be so afraid of the political consequences of Tusk’s return to Poland? Opinions are divided, but it is hard not to notice the fact that the opposition’s ratings in opinion polls increased significantly just a few days after his comeback. According to political scientists, there is a chance for Tusk to unite a large part of the opposition and to start - after a series of 7 elections (parliamentary, presidential, European and local) that the opposition lost - the successful fight against the ruling right wing. The main question is whether the new-old leader of PO will not return to the times when he controlled the party in a strongly authoritarian way, without hesitation putting aside politicians who expressed an opposite opinion or tried to compete with him. But the supporters of the thesis about The Warsaw Voice
