Well before his appointment to one of the most senior posts within the European Union, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had honed a reputation as one of the bloc’s most pro-European and politically savvy leaders.
The 57-year-old Mr. Tusk has been active in domestic politics for most of his adult life, playing a minor role in the anticommunist Solidarity labor movement that helped usher in democracy in Poland in the 1980s. After the 1989 collapse of the Iron Curtain, he served in various roles in the country’s parliament
But it wasn’t until 2005, when he ran for his nation’s presidency, that Mr. Tusk emerged as a political heavyweight, despite an election defeat. In 2007, his center-right Civic Platform party won national elections on a free-market platform, and Mr. Tusk became prime minister. Four years later, he became the first premier in Poland’s recent history to be elected for a second term.
A skilled orator, he has managed to maneuver his way around political crises in Poland during his tenure. On the international stage, he has gained recognition by his European peers for leading Poland through the Continent’s financial crisis. The country was the only EU member to avoid falling into recession in 2009 amid the global financial crisis.
His departure from Poland’s politics will likely create a vacuum within his party, which he has dominated over the past few years, ahead of parliamentary elections scheduled for next year.
Poland’s conservative opposition has frequently claimed Mr. Tusk is too accommodative of Russia and Germany—Poland’s biggest neighbors and former military occupiers. Mr. Tusk has disputed such claims, and during this year’s Russian-Ukrainian crisis he has been one of the EU’s most outspoken critics of the Kremlin.
He remains a close ally of German Chancellor Angela merkel. Mr. Tusk hails from an ethnic minority in the northern Polish region of Kashubia, in the former Polish-German borderland, while Ms. Merkel has said she has Polish ancestors.
Mr. Tusk’s selection as council president is a great step forward for the EU’s Eastern European members. “It’s certain that over last months the situation around Europe has dramatically changed,” Mr. Tusk told reporters after his appointment was announced on Saturday. “The presence of people with Eastern European experience will be badly needed in Europe.”
Poland’s turbulent 20th-century history with its neighbors has colored Mr. Tusk’s own political career. He landed in hot water during the 2005 presidential election when his political contenders revealed Mr. Tusk’s grandfather, a native of Gdansk, had been conscripted in the German military after Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939.
He also has been criticized for his sometimes shaky command of English and a lack of French. Indeed, he spoke Polish for most of his first news conference after his election to the EU top job on Saturday.
At the start of the news conference, he spoke English competently, albeit briefly. Toward the end, when asked about his language skills, he pledged in English to “polish my English” before starting in the European Council post Dec. 1, promising to hold an English-only news conference after he assumes his new role.
The EU council president is seen as the bloc’s principle representative to the outside world, presiding over the bloc’s council of national leaders.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/articles/donald-tusk-a-champion-for-eastern-europe-in-a-leading-role-at-eu-1409434017
Read also: http://euobserver.com/institutional/125427
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