Donald Tusk promises to restore Poland to ‘its rightful place’

Poland’s new prime minister Donald Tusk has promised to return his country “to its rightful place in Europe”, after an icy eight-year standoff between Warsaw and Brussels.

Nearly a decade after he departed to serve as European Council president, Mr Tusk said his Brussels experience meant “no one will beat me in the EU” game.

Challenging the outgoing government’s framing of the EU as a conspiracy contrary to Polish interests, Mr Tusk said his homeland had “no reason, Polish politicians have no reason, to feel any inferiority complex in the EU”.

“This madness, this embarrassment of ourselves, may have cost us more than ridicule,” he said, a nod to €35 billion in EU aid outstanding in a row over judicial reforms Mr Tusk has promised to end. “But I can guarantee you that we will make Poland return to its rightful place.”

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Looking to its eastern neighbour, Ukraine, Mr Tusk promised full support in its war with Russia while promising to address concerns of domestic farmers about Ukrainian grain flooding the Polish market.

Calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “an attack on all of us”, Mr Tusk promised to use his return to Brussels to demand a “full mobilisation” to assist. “Only a united West can help Ukraine win in the fight for democratic values,” he said. “We must remember what the war is about.”

Turning inward to his country, bitterly polarised along conservative and liberal lines, he invoked the words of the late Polish pope St John Paul II. “Once he said ‘there is no solidarity without love’,” he said.

Mr Tusk called out “xenophobia introduced by the authorities in public debate” and a “hostile attitude” towards migrants and the LGBTQ+ community, reframing Poland’s growing diversity not as a threat to an inclusive Polish identity but as source of strength.

“We will have different views on many issues, but we want to be a community and the work of the future government will focus on this,” he added. “We are so different, we are attached to different traditions. This is our wealth. The community is built by the rule of law and the constitution, and we should not argue about this.”

Parallel to Mr Tusk’s address, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg said Poland had violated its citizens’ rights by refusing to provide same-sex ‘couples with a legal union to guarantee their fundamental rights.

Poland allows for marriage only between men and women, a restriction challenged by 10 Polish nationals living in same-sex unions as creating disadvantages for them in tax, social rights and family law.

In its ruling the court said there was no basis for the argument that legal recognition and protection for same-sex couples in a stable and committed relationship would harm families in traditional marriage structures.

On the campaign trail, Mr Tusk promised to introduce same-sex civil partnerships. Echoing congratulations of other leaders, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called Mr Tusk “a true friend and ally to Ireland during Brexit”.

Soon after Mr Tusk spoke, the proceedings were plunged into chaos when a far-right MP used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles in the parliament, leading the speaker to exclude him from the sitting. Condemning Grzegorz Braun of the far-right Confederation party, Mr Tusk said the incident was “unacceptable” and “a disgrace”.

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