Polish opposition leader Donald Tusk is facing a challenging battle as he seeks to unseat the nationalist conservative government in Poland’s upcoming parliamentary election. Tusk, a former prime minister and former European Union leader, re-entered Polish politics in an attempt to revitalize his party and regain power. His primary goals include reversing what many see as a deterioration of fundamental rights and relations with European partners under the populist Law and Justice party, which currently governs Poland.
Tusk, who is 66 years old, organized a significant rally on Sunday with the hope of energizing his supporters. However, he must overcome various obstacles, including divisions within the opposition ranks and, perhaps most importantly, the influential government forces that portray him as disloyal to the nation. This portrayal creates a significant challenge for his political ambitions.
The upcoming parliamentary election in Poland is being shaped by a longstanding and bitter personal rivalry between opposition leader Donald Tusk and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the de facto leader of the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party, who is 74 years old. Kaczynski, along with other government figures and state media, has consistently alleged that Tusk’s previous tenure as prime minister from 2007 to 2014 was detrimental to Poland.
Their accusations include claims that Tusk’s close relationship with then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel led to unfounded allegations that he served Germany’s interests at the expense of Poland. Additionally, they accuse him of abandoning Poland when he assumed the role of European Council president in Brussels in 2014.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, in response to Tusk’s questions about his wealth, tweeted, “Herr Donald, you left Poland to serve German interests in Brussels, for big money. … I gave up a high salary in order to serve Poland.” Tusk has denied these allegations and brushed them off.
Tusk’s “March of a Million Hearts,” which took place two weeks before the October 15 election, is part of his campaign to counter the populist government’s attempts to portray him as unpatriotic. His electoral alliance, the Civic Coalition, lags a few percentage points behind Law and Justice in opinion polls.
One of Tusk’s biggest challenges is convincing his supporters that the incumbent party can be defeated despite its significant consolidation of power. The June 4 march, which inspired this rally, saw a massive turnout of solidarity following contentious legislation aimed at investigating Russian influence in Poland, which was seen as a move against Tusk. Instead, it rallied support for him.
However, divisions within the opposition, including the absence of the Third Way alliance, make Tusk’s return to power more complicated. The Third Way participated in the June march due to concerns about targeting Tusk, but there is no pressing issue motivating their participation this time.
Tusk’s electoral alliance includes the Civic Platform party and three other small parties, but there is also the Left party competing for younger voters against the far-right Confederation party. The opposition’s disunity and lack of a joint electoral strategy pose challenges for Tusk’s coalition.
Some analysts attribute this disunity in the opposition to Tusk’s leadership style, which is seen as domineering within his party. Tusk recently shifted his centrist alliance to the left, appealing to women and younger voters by promising to liberalize the abortion law and threatening to ban party members who criticize his plan from running in the election.
These internal divisions within the opposition add complexity to the political landscape as Poland prepares for its parliamentary election.