Donald Tusk

Donald Tusk
Prime Minister of Poland
Incumbent
Assumed office  16 November 2007
President	Lech Kaczyński Bronisław Komorowski (Acting) Bogdan Borusewicz (Acting) Grzegorz Schetyna (Acting) Bronisław Komorowski
Deputy	Waldemar Pawlak
Preceded by	Jarosław Kaczyński
Vice Marshal of the Sejm
In office 19 October 2001 – 18 October 2005 Serving with Andrzej Lepper Tomasz Nałęcz Kazimierz Michał Ujazdowski Janusz Wojciechowski Józef Zych
Preceded by	Marek Borowski Jan Król Franciszek Stefaniuk Stanisław Zając
Succeeded by	Janusz Dobrosz Jarosław Kalinowski Bronisław Komorowski Wojciech Olejniczak Andrzej Lepper Genowefa Wiśniowska Marek Kotlinowski
Vice Marshal of the Senate
In office 21 October 1997 – 18 October 2001 Serving with Andrzej Chronowski Tadeusz Rzemykowski Marcin Tyrna
Preceded by	Ryszard Czarny Stefan Jurczak Zofia Kuratowska Grzegorz Kurczuk
Succeeded by	Jolanta Danielak Ryszard Jarzembowski Kazimierz Kutz
Born	22 April 1957 (1957-04-22) (age 53) Gdańsk, Poland
Political party	Civic Platform
Spouse(s)	Małgorzata Tusk
Alma mater	University of Gdańsk
Profession	Historian
Religion	Roman Catholicism
Signature

Donald Franciszek Tusk [ˈdɔnalt franˈt​͡ɕiʂɛk ˈtusk] ( listen) (born 22 April 1957) is a centre-right Polish politician, co-founder and chairman of the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska), and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland.

Tusk was officially designated as Prime Minister on 9 November 2007 and took office on 16 November. His cabinet won the vote of confidence in the Sejm on 24 November 2007.

Early life

Tusk was born in Gdańsk. Tusk's father, also named Donald Tusk (1930–1972), was a carpenter. Donald Tusk's mother, Ewa Tusk (1934–2009),^[1] was a nurse. His uncle, Bronisław Tusk (1935–2000), was a sculptor from Gdańsk. His grandfather Józef Tusk (1907–1987) was a railway official who, as a former citizen of the Free City of Danzig, was compulsorily drafted by German Nazi authorities into the Wehrmacht^[2] on 2 August 1944. He deserted a few months later to join the Polish Army in the West on 24 November 1944. Donald Tusk belongs to the Kashubian minority in Poland. In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in December 2008, Tusk compared his own family history with the Jewish experience, describing the Kashubian minority as a people who, "like the Jews, are people who were born and live in border areas and were suspected by the Nazis and by the Communists of being disloyal".^[3]

Tusk graduated from the Mikołaj Kopernik (Nicolaus Copernicus) High School in Gdańsk in 1976. He then enrolled as a student of history at the University of Gdańsk, from which he graduated in 1980 under professor Roman Wapiński with an M.A. thesis on Józef Piłsudski.

Politics

Tusk was one of several vice-speakers of the Sejm (2001–2005), the lower house of the Polish parliament. Prior to co-founding Civic Platform in 2001, he was a prominent member of the Liberal Democratic Congress (Kongres Liberalno-Demokratyczny) and the Freedom Union (Unia Wolności). He quit the Freedom Union after he failed to win the party's chairmanship in a race against Bronisław Geremek.

Tusk's political position emphasizes strong support for a free market economy with minimal government interference and cooperative relationships with other EU members. Tusk has been a member of the Sejm since 2004.

Tusk represented the constituencies of Gdynia-Słupsk (2001–2005) and Gdańsk (2005–2007). Since 2007 he has been an MP for Warsaw. The Civic Platform nominated him as the party's official candidate for the 2005 presidential election. He was defeated in the second round by a margin of 46:54 by Lech Kaczyński.

Prime minister

Donald Tusk (right) being appointed as Prime Minister by the then President Lech Kaczyński on November 9, 2007

Tusk and his Civic Platform party emerged victorious in the 2007 parliamentary election, defeating incumbent Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński‘s Law and Justice party. The Civic Platform’s electoral victory also pushed Law and Justice’s junior coalition partners, the League of Polish Families and Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland out of the Sejm altogether. Following the election, Tusk engaged in coalition talks with the Polish People's Party, emerging with a solid working parliamentary majority. On 9 November, President Lech Kaczyński, who had defeated Tusk in 2005’s presidential election, ask Tusk to form a government. Tusk and his assembled cabinet were sworn in on 16 November, becoming the fourteenth prime minister of the Third Republic.^[4] Tusk and his newly-assembled cabinet survived a vote of confidence in the Sejm several days later on 24 November.

Domestic, European and foreign policy

In his government’s domestic policy, Tusk has pursued the continuation of free-market policies, streamlining the bureaucracy, enacting long-term stable governance, cutting taxes to attract greater foreign business ventures, luring foreign-working Poles back to Poland, and privatizing state-owned companies.^[5] The construction of a more adequate and larger national road network in preparation for the UEFA 2012 football championships has been a stated priority for the Tusk government.^[6] In continental policy, Tusk has strongly supported greater political and economic integration within the European Union, strongly backing the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, standing in stark contrast to President Lech Kaczyński's vehement opposition.^[7] Tusk has repeatedly stated his government’s intention in bringing Poland into the Eurozone. Originally wanting to introduce the euro by 2012, Tusk currently envisions 2015 as "a realistic and not overly-ambitious goal".^[8]

In foreign policy, Tusk has sought to improve relations severely damaged during the previous Kaczyński government, particularly with Germany and Russia. While criticizing the words of German politician Erika Steinbach with regard to her opinion over the expulsion of Germans from Poland following World War II, Tusk has stressed the need for warm relations with Berlin.^[9] Tusk has also advocated a more realistic relationship with Moscow, especially in regards to energy policy.^[9] Under Tusk’s premiership, Russian bans on Polish meat and agricultural products have been lifted, while Poland reversed its official policy of disagreement on a European Union-Russian partnership agreement.^[10]

During a speech delivered to the Sejm in the first weeks of his premiership, Tusk outlined a proposal to withdraw military units from Iraq, stating that "we will conduct this operation keeping in mind that our commitment to our ally, the United States, has been lived up to and exceeded".^[11] The last Polish military units completed their withdraw in October 2008.^[12]

In regards to U.S. plans of hosting missile defense shield bases in the country, Tusk hinted skepticism toward the project, saying that their presence could potentially increase security risks from Russia, and rejected U.S. offers in early July 2008.^[13] By August, however, Tusk relented, and supported the missile shield, declaring: "We have achieved the main goal. It means our countries, Poland and the United States will be more secure."^[14] Following President Barack Obama's decision to scrap and revise missile defense strategy, Tusk described the move as "a chance to strengthen Polish-US co-operation in defense..." He said: "I took this declaration from President Obama very seriously and with great satisfaction."^[15] Tusk later supported a smaller and more mobile defense strategy equipped with short-range missiles and fewer personnel.

Constitutional reform

The Civic Platform (PO) and Polish People's Party (PSL) coalition cabinet of Prime Minister Tusk

After being elected prime minister, relations between Tusk and President Lech Kaczyński were often acrimonious due to different political ideologies and the constitutional role of the presidency. Using presidential veto powers, Kaczyński blocked legislation drafted by the Tusk government, including pension reform, agricultural and urban zoning plans, and restructuring state television.^[16] Tusk and Kaczyński repeatedly sparred over issues ranging from European integration, homosexuality, foreign policy, to constitutional issues, with Tusk taking more socially liberal opinions than the conservative Kaczyński.

In his premiership, Tusk has proposed various reforms to the Polish constitution. In 2009, Tusk proposed changes to the power of the presidency, by abolishing the presidential veto. "The president should not have veto power. People make their decision in elections and then state institutions should not be in conflict.", said Tusk.^[17] Tusk again reiterated his desire for constitutional reform in February 2010, proposing that the presidential veto be overridden by a simple parliamentary majority rather than through a three-fifths vote. "Presidential veto could not effectively block the will of the majority in parliament, which won elections and formed the government", stated Tusk.^[18] Further constitutional reforms proposed by Tusk include reducing the Sejm from a membership of 460 to 300, "not only because of its savings, but also the excessive number of members' causes blurring certain plans and projects".^[18] Similarly, Tusk proposed radical changes to the Senate, preferring to abolish the upper house altogether, yet due to constitutional concerns and demands from the junior coalition Polish People's Party partner, Tusk proposed reducing the Senate from 100 to 49, while including former presidents to sit in the Senate for political experience and expertise in state matters.^[18] Parliamentary immunity for all members of the Sejm and Senate would also be stripped, except for in special situations.^[18] In addition, Tusk proposed that the prime minister's role in foreign policy decisions would be greatly expanded.^[19] By decreasing the president's role in governance, executive power would further be concentrated in the prime minister, directly responsible to the cabinet and Sejm, as well as avoiding confusion over Poland's representation at international or EU summits.^[20] The oppositon conservative Law and Justice party deeply criticized Tusk's constitutional reform proposals, opting in opposing legislation for the presidency to garner greater power over the prime minister.^[21]

In an interview with the Financial Times in January 2010, Tusk was asked if he considered running again as Civic Platform's candidate for that year's presidential election. Tusk replied that although the presidential election typically drew the most voters to the polls and remained Poland's most high-profiled race, the presidency had little political power outside of the veto, and preferred to remain as prime minister. While not formally excluding his candidacy, Tusk declared that "I would very much like to continue to work in the government and Civic Platform, because that seems to me to be the key element in ensuring success in the civilisational race in which we are engaged".^[22] A day after the interview, Tusk formally announced his intention of staying as prime minister, allowing his party to choose another candidate.^[23]

Controversies

On 27 October 2009, Tusk declared that he wants to partially outlaw gambling.^[24] There are some concerns on Internet censorship, as Tusk wants to ban Internet gambling and monitor Internet connections and money transfers.

During the 2009 swine flu pandemic, Tusk defended his government's decision not to purchase swine flu vaccine, citing the lack of testing by pharmaceutical companies and its unavailability to be purchased freely through the market. Tusk criticized other nations' responses to the pandemic. "The eagerness of some countries seems to be excessive and disproportionate to the real epidemiological situation", Tusk stated, referring to the pandemic's relatively low fatality rate.^[25] The government's decision drew harsh responses from opposition members in the Sejm.

Awards

The Karlspreis of the city of Aachen was awarded to Tusk on 13 May 2010 for his merits in the further unification of Europe and for his role as a "patriot and great European". He dedicated the prize to the people killed in a plane crash of a Polish Air Force Tu-154 in April 2010 including the Polish president Lech Kaczyński. The eulogy was given by German chacellor Angela Merkel.^[26]

Personal life

Donald Tusk and his wife, Małgorzata, have two children, a son, Michał (b. 1982) and a daughter, Katarzyna (b. 1987). He also has one grandson, Mikołaj (b. 2009) by his son Michał. They reside in Sopot near Gdańsk.

Electoral history

Polish presidential election, 2005

Prime Minister of Poland (vote of confidence)

• Yes - 238
• No - 204
• Abstain - 2

See also

• Cabinet of Donald Tusk
• List of political parties in Poland
• List of politicians in Poland
• Politics of Poland
• Polish parliamentary election, 2005
• Polish parliamentary election, 2007

References

External links

• Civic Platform
• (Polish) Prime Minister | Council of Ministers | The Chancellery of the Prime Minister
• Donald Tusk – the Implementation of the Polish dream
• Prime minister

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