Poland’s Tusk returns to the front line to face old rival Kaczynski Reuters

Authors: Alan Charlish and Anna Koper

Warsaw (Reuters)-Former European Council President Donald Tusk returned to Polish politics on Saturday as the leader of the main opposition party, a move that reignited a duel with his long-time enemy Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

For many in the Liberal Civic Platform Party (PO) that Tusk helped establish, the stakes are no less than Poland’s future in the European Union.

The elections scheduled for 2023 will determine whether the ruling Nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party led by Kaczynski will continue to dispute with Brussels over issues including judicial reforms, which the European Union says would undermine judges Independence and LGBT rights.

“The citizen platform is indispensable. It needs to be used as a force, not as a memory, to win the future fight against PiS,” Tusk said at the PO conference in Warsaw. “Without a citizen platform, there is no chance of victory. Our history tells us that.”

The competition between Tusk and Kaczynski is both very personal and a symbol of the differences between PO’s pro-European economic and social liberalism and PiS’s conservative social values ​​and left-leaning economics, which largely defines Polish politics. pattern.

Speaking on Saturday at a PiS congress in Warsaw-where he was re-elected leader for what he said would be the last time-Kaczynski contrasted what he said were improvements in living standards under PiS to the elitism he said preceded their rule.

“This group (elite) will dominate… (and) everyone else should agree to live a humble, poor, and sometimes miserable life,” he said.

“By raising wages, substantially increasing pensions, and raising the minimum wage, we have restored… the dignity of people and the dignity of work.”

Tripartite talks

After a closed-door meeting between the new leader, his predecessor Borys Budka and the mayor of Warsaw Rafal Trzaskowski, Tusk announced his return, and the latter was nominated for leadership positions.

Tusk, who served as the President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019, helped guide the European Union through a turbulent period marked by Brexit and the immigration crisis.

As the first prime minister in Poland’s post-communist history to win two terms, he led the PO in the government from 2007 to 2014.

During the global financial crisis, Poland avoided a recession under Tusk’s leadership, but the government is increasingly seen as out of touch with the problems of young and not-so-rich Poles.

After returning to Polish politics, Tusk will still have to face this problem, as some analysts say the party has been working hard to determine its agenda and establish contacts with voters outside the core middle class and urban voters. The party’s historical low point is hovering near. Polls.

“The biggest opposition party is going through the biggest crisis in its history… Many voters who don’t like PiS also don’t want to vote for PO,” said Rafal Chwedoruk, a political scientist at the University of Warsaw.

The PO’s civic union has 126 representatives in the Polish parliament, while the ruling coalition’s 230 representatives rank third in the Polish 2050 party’s poll. The center-right agenda of the Catholic journalist Szymon Holownia resonates with many core PO voters.

In addition, many young voters believe that the party’s stance on divisive issues such as abortion and LGBT rights is too cautious.

However, PiS also faces the problem of uniting its increasingly irritable United Right-wing coalition, and the number of polls this year has declined.

Recently, three lawmakers left the party in an infighting over its flagship “Polish Deal” program, which said this meant that most Poles would pay less taxes, but critics said it would punish small business owners. And the middle class.