Polish premier: No regrets about opposing Tusk re-election

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s prime minister said Thursday she has no regrets about trying to block the re-election of Donald Tusk as president of the European Council and would do it again.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo’s failed attempt to block Tusk’s re-election last month pitted Poland against the 27 other European Union members and was considered a wrong move by many Poles. The ruling Law and Justice party has since seen its popularity fall in polls.

Szydlo also accused Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, of supporting the political opposition in Poland, calling him “not an impartial European leader.”

In an interview with the TVP Info state broadcaster, Szydlo said on opposing Tusk’s re-election: “I am very glad that I took that decision then, and I would do it again.”

Meanwhile, Poland’s most powerful politician, ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said Tusk’s recent visit to Warsaw, where he was greeted by a chanting crowd of supporters, “looked like pre-start of the presidential campaign” for the 2020 elections.

Kaczynski, who spoke to the wpolityce.pl news website, and Tusk are bitter rivals.

Last week, Tusk spent more than eight hours being questioned by Polish prosecutors as a witness in an investigation of alleged secret illegal contacts between Polish and Russian intelligence officials during the time he was prime minister.

He later said the prosecutors’ case is of a “highly political character.”

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