1 year ago
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On Monday, Civic Coalition leader Donald Tusk was selected to be the new prime minister of Poland after rival efforts were defeated in Parliament. Tusk’s victory follows elections in October that left the right-leaning Law and Justice Party still holding the largest number of seats but lacking the numbers (or allies) to form a new government.
Tusk is a former president of the European Council and strongly supports increasing Poland’s role in the European Union. Over the past eight years of rule by the nationalist Law and Justice Party, Poland has broken away from the EU on issues of freedom of the press and international law. As Reuters reports, that’s resulted in tens of billions of EU funds for Poland being placed on hold. Tusk is expected to move quickly to repair these issues and bring more EU funds into Poland.
The Law and Justice Party attempted several last-minute maneuvers to block Tusk, who was previously prime minister between 2007 and 2014, from returning to power. That included naming a commission reportedly investigating Russian influence-peddling which insisted that Tusk, along with other opposition leaders, should be excluded from government. But this effort and all others failed. Tusk won the prime minister role in a 248-to-201 vote, and will immediately form a new government.
