11-06-2025
Donald Tusk has found his own ‘special place in hell'
He once warned Brexiteers they faced their own 'special place in hell'. Now Donald Tusk is in a purgatory of his own.
Poland's prime minister has narrowly won a vote of confidence in his warring coalition after his preferred centrist presidential candidate was defeated earlier this month.
Instead, the Trump-inspired Eurosceptic Karol Narwocki crossed the line first in Poland's presidential elections.
On Wednesday, a total of 243 MPs in the 460-seat parliament backed Mr Tusk's coalition, achieving the simple majority needed for the government to survive in a result he said will give his cabinet new momentum.
'We have a mandate to take full responsibility for what's going on in Poland,' Tusk told parliament in a debate ahead of the confidence vote. 'Governing Poland is a privilege.'
But despite surviving the vote, the prime minister now faces two and a half years of being a lame duck leader hobbled by the new veto-wielding opposition president.
While most of the power in Poland's political system rests with an elected parliament, and a government chosen by the parliament, the president can veto legislation.
This will likely see Mr Narwocki block reform efforts planned by Mr Tusk, such as the planned introduction of same-sex partnerships or easing a near-total ban on abortion.
There are therefore questions about what Mr Tusk can realistically achieve before the next parliamentary election, scheduled for late 2027, and analysts say many Polish voters are disillusioned with the government's failure to deliver on key promises, including reforming the judiciary and raising the threshold at which Poles start paying taxes.
'I don't know the word surrender'
Mr Tusk's authority has also been badly damaged with murmurs that the time has come for him to hand over leadership of the alliance, something he has refused to do.
'I know the taste of victory, I know the bitterness of defeat, but I don't know the word surrender,' he said.
Mr Tusk, the former president of the European Council, was withering about Brexit before he became Poland's prime minister.
He said at the time there was a ' special place in hell ' for 'those who promoted Brexit without even a sketch of a plan of how to carry it out safely'.
Now he is facing the possible fall of his pro-EU government in what threatens to become his David Cameron moment.
Emmanuel Macron, another fierce critic of Brexit, has already suffered a similar fate at the hands of Eurosceptic populists.
He called snap elections in France after he was trounced by Marine Le Pen's National Rally in last year's European Parliament elections.
The French president lost his majority, dramatically reducing his ability to act in domestic politics. He would have lost control of the government, had a 'front republican' of voters not united to keep the hard Right from power.
There was an expectation that a similar 'front republican' would have prevented Mr Narwocki's victory in Poland, but it fell just short.
That is a warning before the presidential elections in France in 2027, which the ardently Europhile Mr Macron will not be able to contest.
