Thanks to the removal of Law and Justice from power in 2023, Donald Tusk inactive enjoys an excellent reputation in liberal Europe – Jan Puhl writes in the latest edition of the German weekly "Der Spiegel".
As the author stressed, Tusk showed how the supposedly inevitable emergence in the influence of right-wing populists, who regulation in Hungary, Slovakia and the Netherlands, could be halted, and in Germany and France they gain expanding support in the polls.
Tusk: Powerless and discouraged
Two years after its success, the Prime Minister gives the impression of a politician who suffered a fiasco, writes Puhl drawing attention to the results of polls in which nationalist groups again distance liberal Civic Coalition.
"The Prime Minister gives the impression of a politician discouraged and tired," said the writer "Spiegel". If Poland falls completely into the hands of national conservatives again, it will not only be a political but besides a individual defeat of Tusk.
Puhl characterizes the Prime Minister as a man who dreams of a world-open, tolerant Poland, rooted in the EU, critically oriented to Germany, but pragmatically linked to them and is vigilant towards Russia.
Many observers believe that the Prime Minister himself is liable for the current situation. The run before the presidential election is judged as a series of failures and missed marks. "Tusk has utilized up" quotes Antoni Dudek "Der Spiegel".
Puhl assessed critically Tusk's election maneuver, consisting of a political "turn to the right" to gain voter support for Rafał Trzaskowski in the province. He mentioned the slogan "repolonization" and celebration of Bolesław Chrobry's 1000-year anniversary "in a more congruent kind to the PiS".
Turn right unbelievable
Tusk's problem is that no 1 believes in his turn to the right – Puhl said that on migration issues the Prime Minister "has always been a Conservative". He not only expanded the barrier at the border with Belarus, but besides suspended the right to asylum and introduced border controls with Germany and Lithuania. Tusk's attitude shifted public debate to the right and damaged it," writes the writer "Spiegla".
Referring to the unfulfilled electoral promises, Puhl pointed out that the blame should not only be borne by president Andrzej Duda, but besides by conservative forces in the government coalition against, for example, liberalisation of abortion rules.
Many supporters of Tusk are disappointed in his government – the German writer said. The "radical pragmatist" Tusk was incapable to offer voters "a affirmative communicative about his government mission".
The prime minister won't get off the field.
Wondering whether Tusk would make it to the end of his word to "end his career with a failure in a fight against the right", or alternatively to appoint Radosław Sikorski as his successor.
According to 1 of Tusk's erstwhile advisors, the Prime Minister will be guided by the will to fight a football fan and will not agree to be taken off the field before the end of the game.
