Almost all EU nations back his second term as European council president but Poland’s opposition leaves it isolated in Europe

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Donald Tusk has won a second term as European council president, overcoming bitter opposition from Poland that has left the country isolated in Europe.

Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, was re-elected on Thursday with overwhelming support to lead the council, the body that organises EU leaders’ meetings, for a second term lasting two and a half years. His reappointment until the end of 2019 means he will play a crucial role in Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU.



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The Pole, from the pro-European centre-right Civic Platform party, overcame strong resistance from his own government, led by the Eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS). The outcome was never in doubt, but is a blow for the Warsaw government, which responded with fury.

“We know now that it [the EU] is a union under Berlin’s diktat,” the Polish foreign minister, Witold Waszczykowski, told Polish media, echoing persistent claims by PiS that the EU is controlled by Berlin.

Despite its anger, however, Poland was left isolated as other countries including traditional central European allies lined up to back Tusk, a popular choice to guide the EU through difficult Brexit talks and tense debates on migration.



News of his re-election was broken by Belgium’s prime minister, Charles Michel, who tweeted his congratulations less than two hours after the meeting had started. In a rare formal vote, 27 of the EU’s 28 governments supported Tusk.

The Polish prime minister, Beata Szydło, confirmed that Poland would retaliate by blocking the EU summit communique, a statement summarising EU policy on economic growth, migration and the western Balkans. But the document can still be approved in a different procedure, a manoeuvre likely to deepen the wedge between Warsaw and other EU capitals.

Poland had hoped Hungary’s Viktor Orbán would join them in opposing Tusk, but the Hungarian prime minister declined to desert an ally in the centre-right European People’s party group.



Orbán had tried and failed to forge a compromise between Poland and members of the European council, his chief of staff, János Lázár, told reporters.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Witold Waszczykowski, the Polish foreign minister, said ‘we now know [the EU] is a union under Berlin’s diktat’. Photograph: Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Szydło was also disappointed by Theresa May. The British Conservatives sit with the PiS in the European parliament, a result of David Cameron’s decision to quit the mainstream centre-right grouping in one of his first acts as party leader in 2009. Although the British prime minister did not speak in support of Tusk, she sided with the majority.



Szydło brushed aside suggestions that Poland was isolated in the EU, declaring there was no good compromise on offer.

She repeated her arguments that Tusk was “not a good president of the European council”, but did not follow her political mentor Jarosław Kaczyński in lashing out at Germany. Kaczyński, the prickly PiS leader, who is not in Brussels, said Tusk’s appointment showed the EU was dominated by Germany. In recent days his supporters have called Tusk ‘the German candidate’ in an attempt to call into question his loyalties.

Tusk later told reporters: “Be careful the bridges you burn because once they have gone you can never cross them again”. He said the saying was dedicated to “all member states ... but today especially to the Polish government”.

In the past, the Polish government has accused Tusk of using his EU position to interfere in domestic politics and blamed him for siding with Brussels against Warsaw in a simmering row over the rule of law in Poland.



The bitterest conflict centres on a plane crash in Smolensk in 2010 that claimed the lives of scores of Polish dignitaries. Kaczyński, blames Tusk for the disaster, which killed his brother, the former president Lech Kaczyński. A government inquiry concluded that pilot error and bad weather were to blame, but PiS has always pointed the finger at the government Tusk led at the time.

Analysts believe PiS is motivated by hoping to spoil Tusk’s chances for a run at the presidency in 2020 once his EU job ends.

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Following his success on Thursday, Tusk acknowledged the “unusual circumstances” of his reappointment but promised to work with all EU leaders “without exceptions because I am truly devoted to a united Europe”.

EU leaders were meeting for the first time in the Europa building, a new €321m (£279m) summit venue in Brussels, decorated with multicoloured ceilings and carpets intended to symbolise the “united patchwork” of Europe.

Poland was never expected to unseat Tusk, but the row threatens to fracture the unity European leaders are seeking in time for the EU’s 60th birthday celebrations at the end of the month and before entering the choppy waters of Brexit talks.



The Polish government made a last-ditch proposal that Tusk’s post should be taken by MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, another member of the Civic Platform party, who helped bring Poland into the EU but has never served as prime minister – the usual qualification for the post. Other countries never took his candidacy seriously. On Monday, he was expelled from the European parliament’s centre-right grouping for his “disloyalty and disrespect” against Tusk.



Following the failure of Saryusz-Wolski, Warsaw argued at the summit the decision should be delayed, but other leaders insisted there was no reason to hesitate.

Tusk is only the second person to hold the position of European council president, which was created in 2009 to boost EU leadership so the bloc no longer needed to rely on a rotating cast of prime ministers and presidents.



Tusk was prime minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014, the only one to have been re-elected since the fall of communism. A German speaker, he has good relations with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Although a natural ally of the UK government, he is also credited for his calm response on the morning after Britain’s vote for Brexit. He was one of the first EU leaders to set out the mantra of “no negotiations without notification”.

In Brussels, a city known for acronyms and dreary cliches, he is not afraid to make punchy public statements. He mocked the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, for expressing a desire to have his Brexit cake and eat it. More recently, he classed the unpredictable behaviour of Donald Trump as one of the biggest threats facing Europe.

Following his re-election, EU leaders are discussing rising tensions in the western Balkans and the state of the EU economy.

The summit will reconvene on Friday, without May, as the 27 leaders look to the future of the EU without Britain.