In 2010, a plane crash in Russia killed Poland’s president and plunged its prime minister Donald Tusk into crisis. Agata Popęda and Daniel Boffey discuss how this incident still affects Tusk’s political career today. Plus: film-maker Mike Leigh on the 1819 Peterloo Massacre

In 2010, a plane crash in Russia killed Poland’s rightwing president, Lech Kaczyński, and plunged the country’s centrist prime minister into a crisis.

That man, Donald Tusk, went on to become president of the European council, a key player in Britain’s struggle to extract itself from the EU. On Sunday, he will chair the critical summit on Brexit. But away from Brussels’ bargaining rooms, Tusk remains locked in a bitter feud with his political rivals in Poland. Agata Popęda and Daniel Boffey join Anushka Asthana to discuss the details.



Also: the film director Mike Leigh discusses the 1819 Peterloo massacre, saying more people should be aware of the murder of demonstrators at a major pro-democracy protest in Manchester.

Clarification: In the aftermath of the Smolensk disaster, Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland at the time of the crash, did not hand over control of the investigation to the Russian authorities. Russia conducted an investigation because the incident had taken place within its borders. The Polish authorities also carried out their own investigation, with access to key evidence including the crash site itself. Controversy remains, however, about Polish access to some of the evidence, and Russia’s continuing refusal to return the wreckage of the plane to Poland. Further investigations by Polish prosecutors are ongoing.

