European Council President Donald Tusk is "using his position to attack the Polish government" and the country as a whole, Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło has written on Twitter.

European Council President Donald Tusk (left) pictured during an EU summit in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Friday. Photo: EPA/JONAS EKSTROEMER

Szydło took to Twitter after Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland, on Sunday suggested that Poland’s ruling conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party was forwarding Russian interests and playing into the hands of the Kremlin with its policies.

“Alarm! Severe dispute with Ukraine, isolation within the European Union, departure from the rule of law and judicial independence, attack on the nongovernmental sector and free media,” Tusk wrote on his personal Twitter account in Polish on Sunday. “Is this a Law and Justice strategy or a Kremlin plan? Too similar to sleep peacefully.”

Szydło tweeted in Polish that Tusk has “done nothing for Poland” in his role as head of the European Council.

“Today, by using his position to attack the Polish government, he is attacking Poland,” she wrote.

'Desperate scream of frustration'

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski has described Tusk’s post as “a desperate scream of frustration.”

Tusk "has been unable to carve out an active role in European politics for himself, so he is trying to plunge back into Polish politics, to meddle and intervene in Polish politics," Waszczykowski told the PAP news agency on Sunday.

Earlier this year the government in Warsaw opposed Tusk’s successful bid to secure a second term as president of the European Council. (gs)

Source: IAR, PAP