Donald Tusk

Donald Tusk
Tusk in 2024
Prime Minister of Poland
Assumed office
13 December 2023
PresidentAndrzej Duda
Deputy
Preceded byMateusz Morawiecki
In office
16 November 2007 – 22 September 2014
President
Deputy
Preceded byJarosław Kaczyński
Succeeded byEwa Kopacz
President of the European Council
In office
1 December 2014 – 30 November 2019
Preceded byHerman Van Rompuy
Succeeded byCharles Michel
Leader of the Civic Platform
Assumed office
3 July 2021
Preceded byBorys Budka
In office
1 June 2003 – 8 November 2014
Preceded byMaciej Płażyński
Succeeded byEwa Kopacz
President of the European People's Party
In office
1 December 2019 – 1 June 2022
Preceded byJoseph Daul
Succeeded byManfred Weber
Deputy Marshal of the Sejm
In office
18 October 2001 – 18 October 2005
Serving with others
Marshal
Preceded byJan Król
Succeeded byBronisław Komorowski
Deputy Marshal of the Senate
In office
20 October 1997 – 18 October 2001
Serving with others
MarshalAlicja Grześkowiak
Preceded byZofia Kuratowska
Succeeded byKazimierz Kutz
Parliamentary offices
Member of the Sejm
Assumed office
13 November 2023
ConstituencyWarsaw I
In office
18 October 2001 – 23 September 2014
ConstituencyWarsaw I (2007–2014)
Gdańsk (2005–2007)
Gdynia (2001–2005)
In office
25 November 1991 – 31 May 1993
ConstituencyGdańsk
Member of the Senate
In office
20 October 1997 – 18 October 2001
ConstituencyPomerania
Personal details
Born
Donald Franciszek Tusk

(1957-04-22) 22 April 1957 (age 67)
Gdańsk, Poland
Political party
Other political
affiliations
Poland:
Civic Coalition (since 2018)
European Union:
European People's Party (2014–2022)
Spouse
Małgorzata Sochacka
(m. 1978)
Children2
EducationUniversity of Gdańsk
Awards
Signature

Donald Franciszek Tusk[a] (born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician and historian who has served as the prime minister of Poland since 2023, previously holding the office from 2007 to 2014. From 2014 to 2019 Tusk was President of the European Council, and from 2019 to 2022 he was the president of the European People's Party (EPP). He co-founded the Civic Platform (PO) party in 2001 and has been its longtime leader, first from 2003 to 2014 and again since 2021.

Tusk has been officially involved in Polish politics since 1989, having co-founded multiple political parties, such as the free market–oriented Liberal Democratic Congress party (KLD), and has held elected office almost continuously since 1991. He entered the Sejm in 1991, but lost his seat in 1993. In 1994, the KLD merged with the Democratic Union to form the Freedom Union. In 1997, Tusk was elected to the Senate, and became its deputy marshal. In 2001, he co-founded another centre-right liberal conservative party, the PO, and was again elected to the Sejm, becoming its deputy marshal.[1] Tusk stood unsuccessfully for President of Poland in the 2005 election and would also suffer defeat in the 2005 Polish parliamentary election.

Leading the PO to victory at the 2007 parliamentary election, he was appointed prime minister, and scored a second victory in the 2011 election, becoming the first Polish prime minister to be re-elected since the fall of communism in 1989.[2] In 2014, he left Polish politics to accept appointment as president of the European Council. The Civic Platform would lose control of both the presidency and parliament to the rival Law and Justice (PiS) party in the 2015 Polish parliamentary election and 2015 Polish presidential election. Tusk was President of the European Council until 2019; although initially remaining in Brussels as leader of the EPP, he later returned to Polish politics in 2021, becoming leader of the Civic Platform again. In the 2023 election, his Civic Coalition won 157 seats in the Sejm to become the second-largest bloc in the chamber. Following the President-appointed Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's failure to secure a vote of confidence on 11 December, Tusk was elected by the Sejm to become prime minister for a third time. His cabinet was sworn in on 13 December, ending eight years of government by the PiS party.[3]

Having been the longest-serving prime minister of the Third Republic, Tusk oversaw in his first term the reduction and digitization of the public sector, wishing to present himself as a pragmatic liberal realist and technocrat. In the lead up to the co-organized by Poland Euro 2012, he invested strongly in infrastructure, expanding the highway network at the cost of rail, which helped the Polish economy uniquely avoid the Great Recession. In the second term, various scandals, unfulfilled promises and a cooling of the economy in 2012–2014 as a result of his European debt crisis-related austerity policies led to a drop of public support.[4] In the landscape dominated by the PiS after its electoral victories, as an influential holdout he opposed what he considered its democratic backsliding. Returning to power in 2023, he has focused on improving the rule of law, warming up relations between Poland and the EU. Since then, as PM, Tusk has continued the aid to Ukraine after the Russian invasion. In 2024, he surprised the public opinion with his appropriation of right-wing themes, such as opposition to illegal migration, prioritizing border security, going as far as to suspend the right of asylum for those who cross the Belarus–Poland border illegally.[5]


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  1. ^ "Donald Tusk". Archived from the original on 29 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2017.
  2. ^ "PSL want to continue coalition in next year's general election". Polskie Radio. 18 November 2010. Archived from the original on 6 April 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
  3. ^ Higgins, Andrew (11 December 2023). "Donald Tusk Chosen as Poland's Prime Minister After Rival Is Rejected". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 11 December 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Tusk, tusk". The Economist. 27 October 2012. Archived from the original on 20 August 2021. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Poland to suspend right to asylum as 'hybrid war' escalates on Belarus border". Politico. 12 October 2024. Retrieved 17 October 2024.