Donald Tusk
Polish Prime Minister
Born 1957 in Gdansk. Polish prime minister since December 2023. It’s a job he also held from 2007-2014. In the meantime, Tusk was President of the European Council from 2014-2019, and probably expected to spend his time writing books and enjoying his retirement.
He holds an MA in history, speaks excellent German and learnt English at express speed in the months before he took over as EU President.
In Polish politics as far back as Solidarity in the pre-1989 period
Tusk was close to Solidarity before the 1989 regime change and worked with Lech Walesa. He started out as a liberal and sat in the Sejm (lower house) from 1991 to 1993 and from 2001 to 2014 and again from 2023. From 1997-2001 member of the Senate (Upper House). After the right wing’s disastrous election in 1997, he started the Civic Platform in 2001. In 2005, he lost in the 2nd round of the presidential election to Lech Kaczynski from PiS.
Elderly gentleman in good shape
Despite his advanced age, Donald Tusk is holding up well. He is reasonably slim, moving all his limbs effortlessly, even though (or maybe “because of”) he is constantly travelling around the country.
Liberal social democrat who wants things to work
Donald Tusk built his political worldview on the idea of liberalism – a Poland where the state should interfere as little as possible. When he became Prime Minister in 2007, he implemented a policy known as “hot water in the tap” – that is, he let things run as far as possible without interference, but intervened quickly and effectively when concrete problems arose. During his years in the EU, Tusk explained that he had become more social democratic orientated. After the 2023 elections, Tusk declared that the social measures that people had become accustomed to could not be changed, including child benefits, but also the retirement age, which was raised during Tusk’s first term in office. It was then rolled back by the PiS government in 2015.
Tusk is Vestern Europe
In terms of foreign policy, Tusk is orientated towards Western Europe, sincerely believes in a European Community and has a realpolitik orientation to the world that is very little characterised by ideology.
Kaczynski and Tusk
The leader of PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, knew Tusk well during the political struggles in Gdansk in the late 1980s and after the system change in 1989. Where Kaczynski stands as a representative of traditional and national politics, Tusk is the internationalist. However, the battle between the two political leaders also sometimes seems very personal, and there is little doubt that Kaczynski’s antagonism towards Tusk goes beyond the political.
Jaroslaw believes that Donald Tusk is partly responsible for the plane crash in Smolensk in 2010, which killed his twin brother, the then President Lech Kaczynski. The allegations are very vague, but it cannot be ruled out that Jaroslaw himself believes them. Since the plane crash in 2010, he has been living in a bubble.
Skilled negotiator
Tusk was already a skilful negotiator during his first government, but was also able to suppress opposition. He has been widely recognised for his work in the EU, where he has undoubtedly learnt a thing or two about compromise.
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