Polish
criticism boosts Donald Tusk’s bid for second term
Harsh
words from powerful rivals back in Warsaw fails to resonate in other
EU capitals.
By DAVID M.
HERSZENHORN, JACOPO BARIGAZZI AND NICHOLAS VINOCUR 2/17/17, 7:17 PM
CET Updated 2/17/17, 7:21 PM CET
European Council
President Donald Tusk’s bid for a second term gained momentum
Friday as harsh criticism from political rivals in his native Poland
appeared to consolidate support for him among European leaders.
While it would be
unprecedented for a Council president to be elected despite
objections from his own country, Tusk does not need Poland’s
support to win a second two-and-a-half-year term. Leaders of the most
influential EU powers, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
have signaled support for keeping Tusk in the post.
The vote, which
requires a qualified majority of the EU’s 28 countries, is expected
to take place at a Council summit on March 9. Tusk’s first term
expires in May.
A French official,
articulating a view shared in other capitals, said there appeared to
be “no alternative candidacy to that of Mr. Tusk.”
In a radio interview
broadcast Thursday, the leader of Poland’s ruling Law and Justice
Party, Jarosław Kaczyński, issued his strongest condemnation yet of
Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, and said Warsaw could not
support him for a new term.
Kaczyński —
widely regarded as Poland’s most powerful politician — and Tusk
are fierce political rivals. Kaczyński has repeatedly said he holds
Tusk “morally responsible” for the 2010 plane crash in Smolensk,
Russia that killed an entire delegation of high-level Polish
officials, including Kaczyński’s twin brother Lech, Poland’s
president at the time.
“It is not in
Poland’s interest for someone like that to be its leader,”
Kaczyński told public broadcaster TVP 3 Białystok.
While it is unclear
if Poland would vote against Tusk or merely abstain, other EU leaders
seem to crave stability at a time when Europe is facing an array of
challenges, most immediately the looming start of formal negotiations
over Britain’s exit from the bloc.
Kaczyński’s
comments may well be aimed at a domestic political audience but they
have served, at least initially, to isolate Poland, including from
its fellow members of the Visegrád Four — Hungary, Slovakia and
the Czech Republic — which have each expressed support for Tusk to
continue in his post.
Poland, despite the
angry invective, has not proposed any alternative candidate and so
far Tusk is not facing any formal challenge from the Social
Democrats, the chief rival of his political family, the European
People’s Party.
Solid performer
After a slow start,
Tusk has emerged as a galvanizing force among EU leaders, rallying
them to stick together in overcoming a barrage of crises. And while
the EU has come under relentless assault from populists, Tusk has
laid the groundwork for deeper and closer integration of EU countries
— an effort he hopes to cement in March at a celebration of the
60th anniversary of one of the EU’s founding documents, the Treaty
of Rome.
Some officials also
noted that Poland’s objections would have far more force if Tusk
were being elected for the first time, but there was little basis for
removing him from the presidency given a general perception of solid
job performance. Some officials said Tusk had also made a concerted
effort to win support beyond his own EPP group, solidifying his
position.
Officially, Maltese
Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country holds the EU’s rotating
presidency, is still canvassing EU leaders to gauge their position on
Tusk. But several diplomats said their countries firmly supported a
second term.
“I don’t see
what sort of scenario could change the situation [of keeping Tusk in
post],” a senior French official said.
Privately, Hungarian
officials have said their government favors Tusk’s re-election, but
publicly Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has yet to announce a
preference.
“We want Tusk to
be re-elected,” said Tomáš Prouza, the Czech Republic’s EU
affairs minister. “We think he’s done a very good job at the
Council.”
“We need someone
like him to defend the EU actively, especially now, with all these
doubts on the EU’s transatlantic relation,” Prouza said, adding
that his country appreciated the tone of Tusk’s letter ahead of the
informal summit in Malta on February 3, and how it “pushed the
U.K.”
A Slovak diplomat
echoed that point.
“Slovakia is
strongly supportive of President Tusk to continue in his current
position,” the diplomat said, asking not to be identified because
they were speaking about internal Council politics. “He has been
doing an excellent job. At this very stage, the EU needs a leader
like President Tusk — able to name things as they are, perceptive,
genuinely devoted to finding common ground among the member states
and strengthening the need for unity.”
Maïa de La Baume
and Joanna Plucinska contributed reporting to this article.
Authors:
David M. Herszenhorn
, Jacopo Barigazzi and Nicholas Vinocur
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