It took Donald Tusk just one word to garner a huge applause at the Warsaw Expo Exhibition Center. “Wróciłem” – “I have returned,” said the man who co-determined the fortunes of Poland as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2014 and that of Europe as President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. On Saturday Tusk officially “and one hundred percent” returned to Polish politics – with one goal: to drive his old archenemy Jarosław Kaczyński, head of the national populist ruling party “Law and Justice” (PiS), from power at the next election.
After almost six years in power and numerous scandals, Kaczyński and his party are far from their previous popularity, at least for the moment. In surveys, they are now just over 30 percent instead of just under 45. If there were elections today, the PiS would be voted out – at least if the opposition were to pull together. Achieving this will be one of the most difficult tasks for Donald Tusk.
Tusk returned after the “Civic Platform” (PO) party, which he had helped to build, was getting closer and closer to a possible end and in polls, instead of over 40 percent as at the wedding under Tusk as Prime Minister, is now only 15 percent, depending on the poll . Since January 2020, the young Borys Budka has been the last to give the party new impetus as chairman. In vain: Budka convinced neither the Poles nor their own party; in no poll is he even listed as a possible prime minister.
Especially old heavyweights of the party like the long-time Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski urged Tusk, who is considered a brilliant organizer and speaker, to return to Polish domestic politics since the end of his presidency of the European Council in 2019. It happened on Saturday: at a PO congress, the hapless Borys Budka resigned as party leader. “I place the future of the country higher than my own ambitions … There is no time for your own ambitions when the house is on fire. We have to put out the fire together, save what can be saved and then rebuild the house together … That day is today. At my invitation, Donald Tusk will return to Polish politics, “said Buda, attempting a face-saving retreat and asked Tusk to come to the lectern. He began his speech with the already quoted “I have returned” – and the hall cheered.
The Tusk return was implemented according to the following script: First Budka resigned as party leader and two of four vice-chairmen resigned. Then Tusk was elected vice-party leader with 201-0 votes, as was Budka with 189-10 votes. As the older of the two, Tusk now leads the party. He could not become party leader on Saturday: He is determined in the citizens’ platform by all members by primary election. This should take place in autumn – a date was not initially set.
As soon as Tusk stood at the lectern, it became clear why many were longing for his political return. Tusk did not mince his words. With Kaczyński and the PiS “evil rules in Poland today. We are going to the fields to fight this evil”. Tusk denounced corruption in the government camp and during the corona pandemic as well as small talk of climate change, “contempt for minorities”, “authoritarian tendencies and hatred of every form of freedom”. The foreign policy of the PiS has “led Poland into complete solitude,” said the former head of government. The PiS managed to spoil relations with Russia, Germany and even the USA. It is time “for this nightmare to end”.
As indubitable as Tusk’s charisma and rhetorical brilliance, the political perspective is unclear – even in one’s own party. Because there Rafał Trzaskowski has grown into a star, who only became mayor of Warsaw in November 2018 with a triumphant election victory and in July 2020, despite the election campaign failing in the pandemic, narrowly missed the victory in the election of Polish President against incumbent Andrzej Duda. Trzaskowski is also vice-party leader – and already publicly announced before the party congress on Saturday that he would stand in the upcoming election as head of the “Citizens’ Platform” himself.
In addition, power in Poland has long since ceased to be distributed solely to this party: in polls, the centrist opposition movement “Poland 2050” of the popular ex-TV presenter Szymon Hołownia is well ahead of the PO with 28 percent. Whether Tusk, Trzaskowski or both: In the coming months they not only have to rebuild their own party – and their voters – but also explore cooperation with other opposition giants such as Hołownia. Tusk is said to have met four times with the whiz kid of Polish politics. At first, Hołownia kept a low profile: Poland’s policy needed “neither a papa nor a messiah,” commented his camp on the return of Donald Tusk.