PiS won`t support Polish EU President

[Bonobo]

PiS`s hatred towards their political opponents is so unrelentless that they are not going to support Donald Tusk for the second term as a EU president.

Or, it is a result of cold calculation. Tusk after second term will return in glory to Poland to participate in Presidential elections, posing a serious danger to current PiS puppet president.



Party leader: Poland will not support Tusk for second term
27.12.2016 16:42
The Polish government will not support Donald Tusk for a second term as the president of the European Council, the head of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) has said.
Tusk served as Prime Minister of Poland between 2007 and 2014, and had earlier cofounded the Civic Platform (PO) party, now in opposition.
Speaking to the wSieci weekly, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński – a major figure in Polish politics – said that: “This is a man, who according to my knowledge, could face criminal charges”, adding that these could relate to the 2010 Smolensk plane crash as well as other issues.
The Tusk’s term as President of the European Council ends next year.
PiS politicians have already indicated that the government would not support Tusk for a second term in office.
The issue of supporting Tusk’s term has divided Polish politicians in recent weeks.
MPs from the ruling PiS party say that Tusk should no longer head the European Council, because – in their opinion – he has done little for Poland since taking on the role in 2014.
Meanwhile, the leading opposition MPs claim that the Poles should be supported by all political fractions for occupying important positions within the EU.
The PiS party has commenced investigations into the 2010 Smolensk crash, which killed then President Lech Kaczyński as well as 95 others, as well as the collapse of the Amber Gold pyramid scheme. Both happened during Tusk's term as Polish PM.

[Bonobo]

Poland confirms Saryusz-Wolski as candidate for European Council President
05.03.2017 12:30
The Polish Foreign Ministry has formally presented the candidature of Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski to run for President of the European Council.

Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said that “Jacek Saryusz-Wolski represents a high level of professionalism and provides a pledge and guarantee of impartiality”.

He will be running against Donald Tusk, a former prime minister of Poland, for the position.

Saryusz-Wolski has been an MEP for Poland's Civic Platform (PO) party since 2004. On Saturday the leadership of the opposition PO decided to exclude him from the group.

Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, said in January that Poland should not support Tusk's bid for the post. “He is in favour of solutions that are extremely harmful to Poland,” Kaczyński said.

He added that Tusk was in favour of financial penalties for European Union member states that do not accept a quota of refugees, which the Polish government strongly opposes.

“We simply cannot support such a person,” he added.

Tusk’s 30-month term as the President of the European Council is due to end on 31 May.

The term of office of the European Council President runs from 1 June 2017 until 30 November 2019.

[Bonobo]

WARSAW — Only one country in the European Union has publicly opposed the reappointment of Donald Tusk as president of the European Council: his own.

Mr. Tusk was Poland’s prime minister for seven years, until 2014, when he was chosen to lead the European Council, which helps set the bloc’s agenda. He was a driving force in last year’s deal with Turkey to address the migration crisis, and he has coordinated the European Union’s response to Britain’s plan to withdraw.

But the right-wing government that took power in Poland in 2015 wants him out of the job. It has even suggested — without evidence — that he has betrayed his country.

The dispute has injected a note of high drama as leaders of the bloc’s 28 members gather in Brussels on Thursday for a summit meeting where Mr. Tusk’s future is on the agenda.
Continue reading the main story

The situation is without precedent: Herman Van Rompuy, a former prime minister of Belgium, was selected unanimously in 2009, when the job was created, and again in 2012; Mr. Tusk’s appointment was also unanimous.

The expectation is to reach a decision by consensus, but if Poland forces the issue, the rules call for a system of weighted voting by the member countries.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat of Malta, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, is expected to ask national leaders on Thursday afternoon if there are any objections to Mr. Tusk’s reappointment. That would give the Polish prime minister, Beata Szydlo, a chance to take the floor.

Ms. Szydlo is expected to propose that Mr. Tusk be replaced by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a Polish member of the European Parliament since 2004 and, until recently, a member of Mr. Tusk’s political party, now the largest opposition group in Poland.

The idea that Poland could try to force a different candidate for the job has been met with bewilderment, and even derision, in Brussels. Mr. Tusk has broad support among the national leaders, and some see Poland’s move as little more than a stunt.

There has been speculation, however, that Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, also a right-winger, could support Ms. Szydlo’s move.

Ms. Szydlo is not without options for embarrassing Mr. Tusk, if not for blocking his reappointment.

She could call for a formal vote, though that is rare at the level of national leaders in the European Union. In 2014, when he was Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron demanded such a vote to register his opposition to the selection of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. Mr. Orban also voted against Mr. Juncker.

Ms. Szydlo could abstain. Lithuania’s president did so in 2014 to express qualms about the confirmation of Federica Mogherini, an Italian diplomat, as the bloc’s foreign policy chief.
Photo
The Polish prime minister is expected to nominate Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, above, to lead the European Council. Credit Stephanie Lecocq/European Pressphoto Agency

Ms. Szydlo or other leaders could also push to delay the decision. But that would run the risk of worsening the perception, already widespread, that the European Union has become too hard to govern.

Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive of the European Policy Center, a research organization in Brussels, said that a rebuff of Warsaw’s position would most likely be portrayed as a move for stability.

“Nationalistic populism has a very domestic focus, but it also entails attacks on the European Union and what we’re seeing is a counterreaction to that,” he said.
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If Mr. Tusk is reappointed, Mr. Zuleeg said, it might even help Warsaw in its off-and-on conflict with Brussels. “Having a candidate of your country appointed, who’s not supported by you, gives you another reason to claim that E.U. decisions aren’t legitimate, and that you’re defending Polish interests,” he said.

The controversy is ultimately more about Polish politics — and the feud is personal.

Mr. Tusk was prime minister in 2010 when Lech Kaczynski, then the president of Poland, died in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia, with 95 others. The former president’s twin brother, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of the right-wing Law and Justice Party that is now in power, has blamed Mr. Tusk mainly for not ensuring better security for the plane, but he has also hinted, more darkly, that Mr. Tusk may have plotted the crash with the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, who is said to have viewed Lech Kaczynski as a threat.

Official investigations in Poland and Russia attributed the crash to pilot error, but Jaroslaw Kacyznski has persisted in raising alternative theories.

“The Polish government cannot endorse someone so biased and disloyal toward his own country,” Ryszard Czarnecki, a Law and Justice official and vice president of the European Parliament, said in a phone interview.

Mr. Tusk criticized Law and Justice and threatened to take actions against the country if it refused to take in its share of refugees, Mr. Czarnecki said, adding, “We are not some yes-men who will agree to anything.”

In a letter to fellow leaders, posted online on Wednesday, Ms. Szydlo wrote: “President Tusk has failed to demonstrate adequate impartiality. He used his E.U. function to engage personally in a political dispute in Poland. We cannot accept such a conduct.”

But Ewa Kopacz, another former prime minister of Poland and a friend of Mr. Tusk’s, said in an interview that the dispute amounted to a vendetta. “It all comes down to personal vengeance and pettiness rather than constructive criticism,” she said, adding that the Polish dispute could not have come at a worse time for the European Union, as it debates its future.

As for Mr. Saryusz-Wolski, after he decided last week to challenge Mr. Tusk, he was excluded from both his party in Poland and from a faction in Brussels, the center-right European People’s Party Group, for which he once served as vice president.

He did not respond to a request for comment, though he has been active on Twitter, writing: “No government would allow itself to support a candidate who abuses its international position to actively instigate opposition against a democratic verdict.”

Even Mr. Czarnecki concedes that the Polish government’s bid is a long shot. And in any case, “Whatever happens on Thursday,” he said, “I bet all my money that the next president of the European Council will be a Pole.”
Correction: March 8, 2017

An earlier version of this article misstated the surname of the chief executive of the European Policy Center. He is Fabian Zuleeg, not Zeelug.

www.nytimes.com/2017/03/08/world/europe/poland-tusk-european-council.html?_r=0

www.reuters.com/article/us-poland-eu-tusk-idUSKBN1671U3

[pjotr]

This proves that they are idiots and don't serve all Poles. In the Dutch or German case the Dutch or German politiciansn of most political parties would support the one national candidate, except Geert Wilders and Alternative für Deutschland ofcourse.

[Bonobo]

Mar 9, 2017 19:04:11 GMT 1 pjotr said:

This proves that they are idiots and don't serve all Poles. In the Dutch or German case the Dutch or German politiciansn of most political parties would support the one national candidate, except Geert Wilders and Alternative für Deutschland ofcourse.

Well, I suppose PiS thinks the same about Tusk what most Dutch and German politicians think about Geert Wilders.

Thus, it means PiS hasn`t done anything wrong - they only decided not to cross certain limits.

On a serious note, they are idiots, but quite consequent in their actions.


Today PiS lost 27 to 1. Even PiS`s "friends" supported Tusk.




Donald Tusk chosen to head European Council for second term
09.03.2017 17:17
Former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk was chosen to head the European Council for a second term during a summit on Thursday, despite opposition from the Polish government.
Tusk was supported by 27 of the 28 members of the European Union. The Polish government was the only member which did not stand behind Tusk.
The governing Law and Justice (PiS) party in Warsaw had said it would “do everything to make sure that vote is not held [on Thursday]”.
PiS had put forward its own candidate, MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, to take on Tusk, who they feel has overstepped his mandate and interfered in local Polish politics.
In a tweet following the vote, Tusk wrote: “Grateful for trust & positive assessment by [the European Commission]. I will do my best to make the EU better.”
PiS spokeswoman Beata Mazurek said the decision "does not bode well" on the European Union, as precedent was set where the EU "chose a candidate which was not supported by his own country".
The appointment was considered “good news” by former Polish prime minister and member of Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) party, Ewa Kopacz.
The next term of office of the European Council President runs from 1 June 2017 until 30 November 2019.

[Bonobo]

Polish trolls target Orban over Tusk re-election

By Aleksandra Eriksson
BRUSSELS, 10. Mar, 14:02

Supporters of Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) are disappointed with Viktor Orban, who backed the re-election of Donald Tusk as president of the European Council on Thursday (9 March).

Some Poles vented their frustrations on the Hungarian prime minister's Facebook page, in Polish, English and Hungarian.

"Until today Orban was a hero, now he's a traitor," one man wrote. "You left my prime minister alone … I will never forgive you," a woman added.

"They [Hungarians] never were our brothers unless for drinking vodka and during the Second World War they chose Adolf," another said.

Others were more vulgar and asked if Orban's butt hurt.

The hashtag #Orban was trending on Twitter on Thursday as other Poles took to the microblog to express their views about Polish-Hungarian friendship.

The Hungarian leader defended himself saying that he voted for the candidate of the centre-right EPP party, of which he is a member.

“We support the candidate of the EPP,” he said, adding that "his good friend" Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, an MEP put forward by Poland to replace Tusk, was no longer a member of the party.

PiS party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Friday he was disappointed with Orban.

"We realise how powerful the pressure was," he said, suggesting that Germany had forced Hungary to vote for Tusk.

Szydlo also said she was "saddened" by the fact the Visegrad countries did not back her on Tusk, but added that the quartet had other goals, which remained important.

"We have prepared together a document that we want to serve as the basis of discussions [on the future of Europe] in Rome. We will soon have another Visegrad meeting in Warsaw to discuss innovation," she

On Friday Orban gave notice to Polish prime minister Beata Szydlo about his support for Tusk, affirming that Hungary would keep on “protecting Poland”. He said, "our respect for Poland and friendship towards Kaczynski has not changed”.

The Visegrad club contains the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

euobserver.com/beyond-brussels/137200

[Bonobo]

Mr Saryusz Wolski`s, the one appointed by PiS to replace Tusk, office in Poland was desecrated. Somebody left a poster quoting famous words by Marshall Piłudski - Once a (political) wh...re, always a wh...re. And they also left a boot full of straw - symbolic meaning.

wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1329,title,Raz-sie-skur-ku-pozostaniesz-Ostry-komentarz-do-odejscia-Saryusza-Wolskiego,wid,18718864,wiadomosc.html?ticaid=118c90