Poland Opposes 2nd Term for Donald Tusk

[Syt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/poland-tusk-european-council.html

Poland Opposes 2nd Term for Donald Tusk, an Ex-Premier, to Lead E.U. Council

WARSAW — Only one country in the European Union has publicly opposed the reappointment of Donald Tusk as president of the European Council: his own.

Mr. Tusk was Poland's prime minister for seven years, until 2014, when he was chosen to lead the Council, which helps set the bloc's agenda. He was a driving force in last year's deal with Turkey to address the migration crisis, and he has coordinated the European Union's response to Britain's plan to withdraw.

But the right-wing government that took power in Poland in 2015 wants him out of the job. It has even suggested — without evidence — that he has betrayed his country.

The dispute has injected a note of high drama as leaders of the bloc's 28 members gather in Brussels on Thursday for a summit meeting where Mr. Tusk's future is on the agenda.

The situation is without precedent: Herman Van Rompuy, a former prime minister of Belgium, was selected unanimously in 2009, when the job was created, and again in 2012; Mr. Tusk's appointment was also unanimous.

The expectation is to reach a decision by consensus, but if Poland forces the issue, the rules call for a system of weighted voting by the member countries.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, is expected to ask national leaders on Thursday afternoon if there are any objections to Mr. Tusk's reappointment for a second term of two and a half years. That would give the Polish prime minister, Beata Szydlo, a chance to take the floor.

Ms. Szydlo is expected to propose that Mr. Tusk be replaced by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a Polish member of the European Parliament since 2004 and, until recently, a member of Mr. Tusk's political party, now the largest opposition group in Poland.

The idea that Poland could try to force a different candidate for the job has been met with bewilderment, and even derision, in Brussels. Mr. Tusk has broad support among the national leaders, and some see Poland's move as little more than a stunt.

There has been speculation, however, that Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, also a right-winger, could support Ms. Szydlo's move. She is not without options for embarrassing Mr. Tusk, if not for blocking his reappointment.

She could call for a formal vote, though that is rare at the level of national leaders in the European Union. In 2014, when he was Britain's prime minister, David Cameron demanded such a vote to register his opposition to the selection of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. Mr. Orban also voted against Mr. Juncker.

Ms. Szydlo could abstain. Lithuania's president did so in 2014 to express qualms about the confirmation of Federica Mogherini, an Italian diplomat, as the bloc's foreign policy chief.

Ms. Szydlo or other leaders could also push to delay the decision. But that could run risk worsening the widespread perception that the European Union has become too hard to govern.

Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Center, a research organization in Brussels, said that a rebuff of Warsaw's position would most likely be portrayed as a move for stability.

"Nationalistic populism has a very domestic focus, but it also entails attacks on the European Union, and what we're seeing is a counterreaction to that," he said.

If Mr. Tusk is reappointed, Mr. Zuleeg said, it might even help Warsaw in its off-and-on conflict with Brussels. "Having a candidate of your country appointed, who's not supported by you, gives you another reason to claim that E.U. decisions aren't legitimate, and that you're defending Polish interests," he said.

The controversy is ultimately more about Polish politics — and the feud is personal.

Mr. Tusk was prime minister in 2010 when Lech Kaczynski, then Poland's president, died in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, with 95 others. Mr. Kaczynski's twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the right-wing Law and Justice Party that is now in power, has blamed Mr. Tusk mainly for not ensuring better security for the plane, but he has also hinted, more darkly, that Mr. Tusk may have plotted the crash with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who is said to have viewed Lech Kaczynski as a threat.

His brother has persisted in raising alternative theories, though official investigations in Poland and Russia attributed the crash to pilot error.

"The Polish government cannot endorse someone so biased and disloyal toward his own country," Ryszard Czarnecki, a Law and Justice official and vice president of the European Parliament, said of Mr. Tusk in a phone interview.

Mr. Tusk criticized the party and threatened to take action against Poland if it refused to take in its share of refugees, Mr. Czarnecki said, adding, "We are not some yes-men who will agree to anything."

In a letter to fellow leaders, posted online on Wednesday, Ms. Szydlo wrote: "President Tusk has failed to demonstrate adequate impartiality. He used his E.U. function to engage personally in a political dispute in Poland. We cannot accept such a conduct."

But Ewa Kopacz, another former prime minister of Poland and a friend of Mr. Tusk's, said in an interview that the dispute amounted to a vendetta. "It all comes down to personal vengeance and pettiness rather than constructive criticism," she said, adding that the Polish dispute could not have come at a worse time for the European Union, as it debates its future.

As for Mr. Saryusz-Wolski, after he decided last week to challenge Mr. Tusk, he was excluded from both his party in Poland and from a faction in Brussels for which he once served as vice president.

He did not respond to a request for comment, though he has been active on Twitter, writing, "No government would allow itself to support a candidate who abuses its international position to actively instigate opposition against a democratic verdict."

Even Mr. Czarnecki concedes that the Polish government's bid is a long shot. And in any case, "Whatever happens on Thursday," he said, "I bet all my money that the next president of the European Council will be a Pole."

[Richard Hakluyt]

Tusk strikes me as a good European, so in a way it makes sense that the current Polish government are not fans.

[Josquius]

Another president would make sense from a pro Europe perspective no? Helps fight those idiots who whine about dictators. Though that oddly tends to be Juncker rather than tusk.

[Razgovory]

Donald Tusk is the kind of name you'd give to a walrus.

[The Minsky Moment]

Why don't you ask him if he's going to stay?
Why don't you ask him if he's going away?
Why don't you tell me what's going on?
Why don't you tell me who's on the phone?
Why don't you ask him what's going on?
Why don't you ask him who's the latest on his throne?

[Zanza]

The EU confirmed Tusk against the vote of Poland. I guess that's also a first in the EU history as normally countries are always eager to support their own, even from opposing parties.

[The Minsky Moment]

Poland is back to the traditional national policy of being their own worst enemy.

[alfred russel]

The EU confirmed Tusk against the vote of Poland. I guess that's also a first in the EU history as normally countries are always eager to support their own, even from opposing parties.

In a way it is a positive step for the EU. A country was looking to the wider EU politics rather than promoting their own national for a top job.

[Razgovory]

Poland is back to the traditional national policy of being their own worst enemy.

The US and the UK seems to have adopted this stance.  I wonder if France and Germany will in their upcoming elections.

[The Minsky Moment]

In a way it is a positive step for the EU. A country was looking to the wider EU politics rather than promoting their own national for a top job.

Except is not's that at all.  It's a conspiracy nut pursuing a personal vendetta and taking down a domestic political rival, even as he has proven his competence in the job. 

[alfred russel]

Except is not's that at all.  It's a conspiracy nut pursuing a personal vendetta and taking down a domestic political rival, even as he has proven his competence in the job.

That discounts the influence of what RH referenced upthread.

[The Minsky Moment]

Except is not's that at all.  It's a conspiracy nut pursuing a personal vendetta and taking down a domestic political rival, even as he has proven his competence in the job.

That discounts the influence of what RH referenced upthread.

Yes it does.  Because that's clearly not the motive.  If Tusk were to step down, the new guy would also be a good European.

[Tamas]

The PiS supporters were QQing all over Orban's Facebook page overnight (using Google Translate), because their hero also voted for Tusk.