Analysis: In Poland, Donald Tusk is ruining the fight.His populist opponents are fighting back

CNN
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When Donald Tusk first came to power in Poland in 2007, the country’s media coined the gentle nickname “the politics of love” to describe his approach to political opponents.

His second term as the country’s prime minister is proving to be less amorous.

The centrist Polish veteran who formed a coalition government after last year’s strong election results has attracted critics and many supporters for his confrontational approach to the populist group he defeated, Law and Justice (PiS). Even surprised me.

“His attitude[in 2007]was very conciliatory towards his defeated enemy. I think he regretted that later on,” said the director of the Warsaw-based think tank Institute of Public Affairs. , said Jacek Kucharczyk.

This time, Mr. Tusk took on the huge task of undoing PiS’s illiberal and far-reaching changes to the Polish state “as quickly and decisively as possible” – a task he and his supporters say is important for Poland. claims to restore democratic institutions.

“He wanted to do the most politically and legally difficult thing first to get a clean slate,” Kucharczyk said.

But recanting a clean slate is an arduous task, and Tusk’s early actions as prime minister have caused rifts in Polish society and led to outbursts of open hostility.

The country’s public television channel TVP, which effectively became the mouthpiece of the previous government, was stripped from broadcasting. Two former senior ministers of the PiS government were arrested inside the presidential palace. And those on the right of Polish politics are taking to the streets to increase pressure on the new leader.

The policy pleased many who voted for Tusk’s coalition of parties and satisfied the bloodlust of the majority of Poland’s population after eight years of divided PiS rule. “It’s seen as a pervasive sense of justice,” said Stanley Bill, professor of Polish studies at the University of Cambridge.

But there are also concerns that Mr. Tusk is going too far, too fast.

“There is no plan laid out for how the facility will be restored in the medium to long term,” Bill argued. “I did it in a hurry.”

“We are in an ad hoc state of exception,” he added. “A real political and legal crisis is intensifying in Poland.”

A central question facing Mr. Tusk is how to restore Poland’s media and judicial independence, which has been eroded by eight years of authoritarian PiS reforms.

That’s a question with no correct answer. PiS protected the state’s changes by filling legal and decision-making bodies with supporters, but PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda It is expected to block legislative attempts to roll back these reforms.

“[PiS’s]philosophy was to create as much legal ambiguity as possible,” Kucharczyk explained.

But Tusk, a politician with a reputation for pragmatism and restraint, announced his intentions within days of taking office.

He sacked the head of public broadcaster TVP and replaced him with a new executive in a bid to quickly eliminate the pro-PiS bias that had turned the state broadcaster into a partisan news outlet.

The move infuriated PiS, sparking weeks of sit-in protests inside TVP’s headquarters and forcing the news channel to go off the air over Christmas. A dispute with Mr. Duda over funding for the broadcaster subsequently ended with the government liquidating the company along with news agency PAP.

However, Mr Tusk’s campaign promise to eliminate PiS influence over the channel “within 24 hours” has been fulfilled. And he brought reassurance to millions of voters (including even some PiS supporters) who had become increasingly perplexed and fed up with the broadcaster’s tendencies.

“It has become a symbol of the excesses of the PiS government,” Bill said of TVP’s transformation into a Hungarian-style state media. “Even his moderate voters didn’t want to see TVP propaganda for a day.”

“Those who supported this government considered the current situation in the public media not only a political scandal, but also a moral scandal,” Kucharczyk added. “(They) are relieved that the people who were running the media are gone and are grateful that this happened so quickly…Many never thought this was possible. ”

Tusk also had personal motivations. “There’s no way that you’re not going to be affected by the situation that Tusk has been in for eight years, where he’s been completely demonized and treated as the root of all evil,” Bill said.

“The political and personal motives here are very strongly intertwined,” Kucharczyk added.

Tusk fanned the flames of social division in Poland with his early actions on public television. This is a “break the egg” approach to restoring democracy, which critics say mirrors the methods of his populist rivals.

His initial move to dismiss the PiS-appointed TVP executive was ruled illegal by the PiS-majority Constitutional Court (the body from which the government removes its powers), and his initial move with Duda sparked the first conflict.

Shortly thereafter, Polish Police made a dramatic raid on the presidential palace to arrest two PiS politicians believed to have taken refuge in Duda’s workplace on corruption charges. Mr Duda and Mr PiS claimed years ago that they had been legally pardoned, but courts disagreed with this position and the party has since labeled the two politicians martyrs of their tarnished populist movement. did. Duda granted a second pardon on Tuesday.

The timing of this story coincidentally coincided with Tusk’s first few weeks and the aftermath of the conflict over TVP, which intensified the dogfight between Tusk and his predecessor in power.

“Just as the PiS occupation of Poland ended, so will the PiS occupation of state institutions end,” Tusk wrote on X (formerly Twitter) last week in comments that signaled a hardline stance against the party leadership. . “The reputation of the occupier will last a long time.”

His move further intensified a tense political environment in Poland that had been smoldering long before October’s elections and escalated further during the long transition of power.

At the heart of the problem is that PiS has incorporated many of its reforms into law and created a sympathetic legal system to further protect the changes.

As a result, Poles effectively live in two different realities depending on their political leanings, each containing courts and institutions that question the authority of the other.

“It will be very difficult to find a way to undo[PiS reforms]without resorting to the same kind of determinist and legally questionable means that PiS used to seize control of the system in the first place,” Bill said. he insisted.

For example, to force changes at TVP, Mr. Tusk had to bypass the National Media Council. The National Media Council, a body created by PiS in 2016 to oversee public media, quickly filled with supporters. The agency is widely dismissed as an attempt by PiS to increase its influence over public media while maintaining independence in how it operates. However, its creation was nevertheless codified in law, so dismantling it required Duda’s approval.

But Bill added that Tusk’s dilemma is “a trade-off between different evils.”

“The alternative would have been to proceed more slowly and more carefully, which could have taken years,” he says. “Taking a more delicate approach would actually mean that we would have to leave the tissue that has degenerated and been captured for a period of time.”

Early signs suggest that Poles are not fed up with Mr. Tusk’s politically aggressive first few weeks.

Opinion polls suggest his coalition will win re-election with just a slightly higher share of the vote. Meanwhile, PiS’s vote share has slumped after the party’s angry backlash over Tusk’s move, with less than a third of Poles supporting the group in most surveys.

And his appointment ceremony was celebrated in Brussels. “We welcome your commitment to putting the rule of law at the top of your government’s agenda,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at a joint press conference with Tusk last month. We need to make up for lost time.”

But the road ahead could be difficult.

“There’s no clear plan for what’s going to happen next,” Bill said. He pointed to the liquidation of TVP as a short-term measure. Mr. Tusk’s bid to take back public media is currently being debated in dueling courts, with neither side recognizing the authority of the other.

Mr. Tusk enjoys universal support across the coalition for his mission to “de-PiS” Poland. But he will soon have to turn to his own challenges as well, and will hope that such a move does not get caught up in or complicated by the fallout from his struggle with the old ruling party.

Tusk recently reiterated his campaign promise to ease Poland’s abortion rules, which were changed by PiS and are now virtually impossible to access. He is being urged by the left-wing parties in his coalition to move forward on this issue, but he will also need to win over more conservative, centre-right MPs to his side.

And on the European stage, Tusk wants to quickly unfreeze funds for Poland, which is blocked by the European Union due to PiS’s subversion of the rule of law.

This is a major in-tray, and his every move will continue to be criticized by the opposition, which remains a powerful force even without control of state television.

“One of the unifying forces among PiS supporters is distrust, even hatred, of Donald Tusk,” Kucharczyk said. “That hasn’t changed.”

The politics of love feel like an otherworldly relic. And Tusk’s strategy reveals that things will get even more chaotic before they get better.

Nevertheless, after eight years of populist rule that has strengthened the front lines of Polish politics, much of the country’s population is losing the battle.

Mr. Tusk’s approach “will only further damage Polish institutions, the legal order and, perhaps most importantly, the set of customs in which those institutions are practiced,” Mr. Bir said. “(But) from a political standpoint, it’s easy. This is what voters want.”