Donald Tusk: A Savior of Polish Democracy?

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.

After 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 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 possibility of Tusk’s success point out that 6 years in the structures of the European Union, working on the principle of a constant search for consensus among all 28 countries, must have taught Polish politician the art of making compromises. Admittedly, already in the first days of his term, the former prime minister made several changes in the party leadership and its parliamentary club, but so far this has not been met with any internal criticism. So it seems that his political plan was consulted beforehand.

Donald Tusk, Photo PAP

Observers of the Polish political scene agree that the key issue for today’s opposition will be, firstly, to preserve the unity of its dominant Platform, and secondly, to establish a constructive dialogue with Szymon Holownia’s Poland2050, a new party, popular especially among the younger electorate. Admittedly, Hołownia, who in the last six months was close to taking second place in the popularity ratings (after the ruling Law and Justice party), lost heavily after Tusk’s return and is probably not overly happy about it, but at the same time, as a young, budding politician, he should be aware of the benefits of at least partially joining forces before the next parliamentary elections.

The coming months, which in Poland will rather surely be full of fierce political conflicts, will bring an answer to the question, whether Tusk’s experience and his political intuition will make the forces of the ruling coalition and the opposition equal. The polls show unequivocally that among all politicians from the opposition he has the best chances to do so.

Born in 1957, Tusk graduated in history from the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Gdańsk (1980).

It was during his studies that he first became involved in opposition activity against the communist authorities. During the strike in August 1980, he was one of the authors of the appeal for the establishment of the Independent Polish Students’ Association (NZS).

After the political breakthrough in 1989, Tusk became one of the founders of the center-right Liberal Democratic Congress (KLD). In 1991, he became chairman of the party, which won 37 seats in the Sejm and 6 in the Senate in the parliamentary elections of the same year.

In April 1994, he became one of the vice-chairmen of Freedom Union (UW), formed after the merger of KLD and Democratic Union. In the parliamentary elections of 1997, he was elected senator and joined the coalition supporting Jerzy Buzek’s government. He became Deputy Speaker of the Senate. At the beginning of 2001, after losing a rivalry for the chairmanship of the UW with Bronisław Geremek, he left the party.

On 24th January 2001 Tusk founded the Civic Platform together with Andrzej Olechowski and Maciej Płażyński. In the elections of the same year, PO won 65 seats in the Sejm, becoming the largest opposition club. Tusk became Deputy Speaker of the Sejm. On June 1, 2003, he became Chairman of PO.

On May 2005, he declared his intention to run for president.

In the first round of the election, on October 9th, he was supported by 36.33% of voters. In the second round, on October 23rd, he received 45.96% of the vote, losing to Lech Kaczyński, the Law and Justice candidate.

Also in the parliamentary elections, Civic Platform lost by less than three percentage points to Law and Justice and became the opposition party to the governments of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz and Jarosław Kaczyński.

In the early parliamentary elections of 2007, led by Tusk, PO won with 41.51% of the vote and 209 seats in the Sejm and 60 in the Senate. The party leader ran for a seat in the Warsaw constituency, receiving 534,241 votes, which was the best individual result in the history of elections to the Sejm after 1989.

On November 16, 2007 Tusk was appointed Prime Minister.

In the next election in 2011, Tusk ran again in the Warsaw district and received 374,920 votes, again the most in the country. PO won the election, receiving 39.80% of the vote and 207 seats in the Sejm and 63 in the Senate. Thus, for the first time since 1989, the party in power remained in power.

On 30 August 2014, during a meeting of the European Council, Tusk was confirmed as its president for a two-anda-half-year term. Following his election, he resigned as head of government on September 9. He took up his new office on December 1, replacing Belgian Herman Van Rompuy.

On March 9, 2017, at an EU summit in Brussels, Tusk was re-elected as president of the European Council, winning the support of representatives from 27 countries. His re-election was not supported only by Prime Minister Beata Szydło, representing the Polish government.

In November 2019, Tusk was also elected as the new president of the European People’s Party.

On November 29, 2020, he officially handed over the duties of Council President to his successor, who became Charles Michel.

On 3 July 2021, following the resignation of Borys Budka, Tusk was elected as the vice-chairman of the PO, becoming acting chairman in accordance with the statute.