PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski in a February radio interview said that it was “not in Poland’s interest” for “someone like that” to sit as president, as Tusk had damaged Poland’s national interests.
Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has barred Prime Minister Beata Szydlo from backing Tusk’s candidacy, and has put forward an alternative candidate.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs formally nominated Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, an MEP from Tusk’s center-right Civic Platform, in his place, calling Tusk was a “German candidate”.
President Jaroslaw Kaczyński accused Tusk of “directly supporting the opposition” over the issue of judicial reforms and added that Tusk was trying to “overthrow the government”.
He said: “Donald Tusk is a politician who breaks the elementary rules of the European Union. Someone who breaks such rules cannot simply be the European Council’s president and cannot under any circumstances count on our support – or a lack of our objection”.”
Warsaw has also accused Tusk of criminal acts over the death of former Polish president Lech Kaczyński in a plane crash in 2010, but Tusk has strongly denied the allegations.
The Polish government has ordered the exhumation of the president’s body as part of a criminal probe into the tragedy, which was officially put down to pilot error.
Tusk was Polish Prime Minister in 2010 when Kaczynski’s twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, along with many other high-ranking state and military officials. Kaczynski told German Chancellor Angela Merkel that he might issue a European arrest warrant for Tusk over his alleged role in the crash.
On March 9, EU heads of state will meet during a two day summit, to “elect” the EC President and Tusk is widely considered the favourite for a second 30-month term, Reuters reported.
Despite being a Civic Platform member, he has been at odds with party members for some time, and was banned from representing the party’s delegation in the European Parliament.
Saryusz-Wolski tweeted that “no government would allow itself to support [a] candidate who abuses [their] international position to actively instigate opposition against democratic verdicts”.
Tusk is the second European Council president since the post was created following the Lisbon Treaty. Both he and his predecessor, Herman Van Rumpoy, were Prime Ministers at the time of their election.
Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski described Tusk in January 2017 as “the icon of evil and stupidity”. The “absurd” Tusk, Waszczykowski said, was “behaving grotesquely, ignoring his own government.”
Poland’s attempts to oust Tusk are unlikely to succeed, given that he has many powerful backers and they are the only member state opposed to his re-election. Luxembourg’s foreign minister, called for Poland to be expelled from the bloc.
“Poland no longer respects the Copenhagen criteria that the country had to meet before EU accession… the government is more and more involved in restricting the rule of law,” Minister Jean Asselborn said.
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